Woker-than-woke Massachusetts is poised to implement the mother of all DEI initiatives: a Muslim commission that will act as a permanent state agency in order to prioritize the hiring of Muslims for positions at all levels of state government. Leftists assume that Muslims are a disadvantaged minority that needs government help to overcome “Islamophobic” discrimination, and so they don’t see any problem with this. But the constitutional issues it raises should be obvious.
Imagine if the state of, say, Florida, were planning to implement a “Christian commission” that would be devoted to facilitating the hiring of Christians for state government positions. The outcry would be immediate and intense, and the whole thing would be shut down swiftly. Yet Fox News reported Tuesday that “Massachusetts lawmakers are taking steps toward prioritizing the hiring of American Muslims for state government positions under a permanent so-called Muslim commission.”
The commission would “help recommend Americans who practice Islam to appointed government positions” in Massachusetts. The state of Massachusetts would be officially devoted to granting special privileges and access to practitioners of Islam, solely because they were Muslims, in preference over people of other faiths: “A proposed bill would create a panel of 11 Muslims appointed by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials to represent the Islamic faith on issues such as business, economy, healthcare and other concerns.”
Investigative journalist and political analyst Daniel Greenfield, the CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, observed acidly, “In 1833, Massachusetts became the last state in the country to ‘disestablish’ its church and separate church and state. In 2026, Massachusetts legislators are proposing to ‘reestablish’ Islam as a state religion with the power to propose laws and pick government officials.”
And that is exactly what this Massachusetts Muslim commission amounts to: the establishment of Islam as Massachusetts’ official state religion. For this is what having an established religion actually means. The established religion of the United Kingdom is Anglicanism; this doesn’t mean that everyone in Britain is Anglican (far from it), but that, at least officially, the Anglican Church is favored in various ways above other Christian groups and non-Christian religions.
The Muslim commission would work in much the same way. It would “identify and recommend qualified American Muslims for appointive positions at all levels of government, including boards and commissions, as the commission considers necessary and appropriate."
There is no similar bill to ensure the placement of Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists in positions at all levels of government. This is the Massachusetts state government officially adopting the promotion of Islam as one of its core priorities. Presumably, tax money will be used for this initiative. So with the First Amendment prohibiting the establishment of a religion, and that being understood for many, many years as ruling out the establishment of a state as well as of a national religion, how can this possibly be constitutional?
Yet Democrats are actually selling this bill as a manifestation of concern for civil rights, even though it is an infringement upon the rights of every non-Muslim in Massachusetts. Democrat state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who is the primary sponsor of the bill, boasted, "Massachusetts has always prided itself on being a leader in equality and civil rights, a legacy this bill builds upon. American Muslims in my district and across the Commonwealth enrich our communities as students, healthcare workers, educators, small business owners, and civic leaders. This commission will help the state better understand and address the challenges they face, while strengthening inclusion and civic participation."
Related: Biden Regime Had Planned to Bring Millions More Illegal Migrants Into the Country
That all sounds quite high-minded, but its one-sidedness and favoritism toward Muslims is unmistakable. Also, the bill completely ignores the biggest elephant in the room: Sharia. Islamic law is an all-encompassing system, covering not just ritual practice but the political arena as well, and, indeed, every aspect of life. And under Sharia, the freedom of speech is restricted, as are the rights of women and the rights of non-Muslims.
Will this Massachusetts Muslim commission enable the spread of Sharia in Massachusetts, and in the United States as a whole? How could it not do so? And as Sharia becomes more and more prevalent nationwide, and non-Muslims and women find their civil rights increasingly infringed, will people look back to the establishment of this Muslim commission and reflect on the irony of how they began to lose their rights when this “civil rights” entity began operating?
