New Jersey Muslims feel a sense of betrayal by Christie

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/nyregion/new-jersey-muslims-feel-sense-of-betrayal-by-christie.html?_r=1

N.Y. / REGION

New Jersey Muslims Feel Sense of Betrayal by Christie

The invitation arrived by email, bearing the seal of the State of New Jersey and the name of its new governor, Chris Christie. It asked a select group of Muslim leaders to break the daily Ramadan fast at Mr. Christie’s home, and began with a traditional Muslim salutation.

“Assalamu Alaikum (Peace be with you),” the greeting, from summer 2010, read. “Wishing you a happy and blessed Ramadan.”

With the gathering, at an evening meal known as Iftar, Mr. Christie opened what Muslim leaders recall as a period of exceptional warmth between the state’s sizable Muslim community and a prominent Republican. The governor became a fierce defender of local Muslims, rebuking his party in forceful terms for its hostility to a proposed Islamic center in Manhattan, and denouncing what he called “the crazies” on the right for attacking a Muslim lawyer Mr. Christie had selected for a judgeship.

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But as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination half a decade later, Mr. Christie’s ties to Muslim leaders in New Jersey have grown deeply strained. The governor has recast himself as a relentless warrior against terrorism, with little patience for what he calls “politically correct” national security policy.

Among some community leaders, who saw Mr. Christie as a rare Republican who rejected alarmist, broad-brush rhetoric about Islam, a sense of betrayal has set in.

Most distressing, to advocates for New Jersey’s Muslim community, has been Mr. Christie’s rigid stance on refugees fleeing Syria: Citing his distrust of President Obama’s administration to screen them for security risks, Mr. Christie has called for a full stop to the settling of refugees in the United States.

That includes, he said on a radio show, “orphans under 5.”

Community leaders say Mr. Christie has also missed opportunities to speak out, in the thunderous tones they have come to expect, about what they see as flagrantly hateful remarks from other Republicans. Donald J. Trump has called for intensive monitoring of Muslim-Americans, and has repeated a widely debunked myth that throngs of Muslims in Jersey City celebrated on Sept. 11, 2001