who has since won the Republican nomination for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
The committee says it wants to stop the imposition of “barbaric” Sharia law in the state.
The newly registered state political action committee was set up to defeat Arab-American David Ramadan, according to paperwork submitted to state election officials, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported last month.
Ramadan is now the Republican nominee running against Democrat Mike Kondratick in the 87th House District that covers parts of Loudoun and Prince William counties, which are in the distant suburbs outside Washington, D.C.
Opposing Ramadan is the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force PAC, a group whose website explains its mission as an effort to block “implementation of the radical, barbaric and anti-Constitutional” Muslim religious law in this country.
What issues the group has with Ramadan aren’t clear. The PAC founder, James Lafferty, didn’t return phone or e-mail messages from The Virginian-Pilot seeking comment. The committee hasn’t yet reported any money raised or spent.
A native of Lebanon, Ramadan said this summer’s Republican primary contest was rife with insinuations about him from political foes who “did everything in their power to try to label me as the terrorist hiding next door.”
Ramadan told the newspaper he was the husband of a Christian woman and doesn’t actively practice the Muslim faith or support the preeminence of religious law over existing statutes.
“I am for one, and only one, set of laws: the US Constitution,” he said.
While questions about his personal and professional background were an issue in the August Republican primary, they were clearly not damaging enough with GOP voters to cost him the nomination. He won that nomination with 56 percent of the vote in the second most expensive primary for the House of Delegates this year in Virginia.
James Lafferty of Alexandria, Virginia, registered his PAC in July specifically to fight Ramadan’s candidacy. But Lafferty is a former Republican staffer for the House of Representatives. It isn’t clear if he will continue his opposition to Ramadan this fall when to do so he would have to support Ramadan’s Democratic opponent.
Lafferty’s website for the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force was set up in 2009. He refers to his group by the initials VAST, but his website has so far signed up only 18 “followers.”
Ramadan, who came to the United States in 1989, didn’t seem fazed by Lafferty’s opposition. In an interview with The Washington Examiner, he said, “We have a country with freedom of religion. We should not alienate and we should not litmus-test any American based on their religious beliefs.”
Ramadan’s backing from the party brass has positioned him well and helped deflect questions about his background. Prominent Republicans including Gov. Bob McDonnell, US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Rep. Frank Wolf have all endorsed Ramadan—a past campaign contributor to all three. McDonnell appointed Ramadan to the George Mason University Board of Visitors in 2010.
“It’s showing the electorate that this was nothing but fear and smear against a solid conservative Republican that has been known and vetted,” Ramadan said. “You don’t get Majority Leader Cantor to weigh in on a House of Delegates race unless he knows you.”