Michael Pope reports
During a televised debate with the Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor this week, WJLA moderator Dave Lucas asked candidate Sam Rasoul if he could assure voters he would represent Virginians of all faiths.
Scott Simpson, with the group Muslim Advocates, says that question employs anti-Muslim tropes. We would never accept a moderator who asked a question about whether a candidate would be beholden to their Jewish donors or their Christian donors, Simpson argues, and it makes no sense for this to be acceptable to ask about Muslim donors. Muslim candidates for office are frequently targeted for hate speech and death threats.
A Sinclair anchor directed a bigoted question to a Muslim candidate His station is seemingly ignoring the controversy
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Letter to the editor: Rasoul a rare politician, generous, sincere
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When the US state of Virginia s largest school district began allowing students time off to protest in 2019, the backlash was swift and partisan: Conservative critics denounced Fairfax County Public Schools for coddling its too-liberal, too-sensitive youth and predicted kids would abuse the policy to play hooky. But a year later, the Virginia General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that will take Fairfax s policy statewide, permitting more than 680,000 middle and high school students across 130-plus school systems one excused absence every year to engage in a civic event.
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post
From left, Adrian Klaits and Matthew Savage of the Virginia Young Democrats Teen Caucus, and Josh Lyon of the Teenage Republican Federation of Virginia in Falls Church, Virginia.