Sheriff Seals speaking to Sevier County Tea Party.
Photo credit The Mountain Press
By Will Coley
September 2015
Muslims 4 Liberty Tennessee is calling for the immediate resignation of Sevier County,TN Sheriff Ron Seals.
Last week at a meeting of the Sevier County Tea Party Sheriff Ron Seals of Sevier County made openly bigoted statements, showing his inability to fairly and equitably enforce the law on all of his constituency. Sheriff Seals made it plainly clear that because “Obama is a Muslim”, he will be targeting local Muslims in Sevier County with extra scrutiny, along with reporting them to the FBI. Sheriff Seals made claims about possible terrorist activity at a local mall, the property manager of which has no idea what the Sheriff is fear mongering about. It is unfortunate that Sheriff Seals felt the need to express such bigotry so openly and publicly. This type of open prejudice toward any other group or minority by a member of law enforcement or elected official would never be tolerated had his comments targeted any other group.
**From The Mountain Press**
Sheriff Seals tells SC Tea Party of suspicious activity
By JASON DAVIS
Editor
SEVIERVILLE — Sevier County Sheriff Ron Seals told the Sevier County Tea Party last week that some of his officers, working in an off-duty capacity as private security, contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after seeing troubling behavior at Tanger Outlet Center in Sevierville.
Prompted by an audience member’s statement about women in burqas spending long periods of time in shops without making purchases, the sheriff indicated officers had seen similar behaviors.
“We have some officers up there … they’re officers, but they hire them, off-duty police officers, primarily to work traffic, and they’ve noticed the same lady running around up there … taking pictures with a camera,” Seals said. “We got the information. We passed it on to Homeland Security. They’ve addressed it, and I don’t think anything else actually came of it.
“We thought maybe they’re doing that to maybe see what days there’s a big crowd up there.”
Angela Harness, the general manager at Tanger, said she was aware of no complaints of loitering customers.
“Our international traffic has picked up, so we’ve seen a lot more diversity in our shoppers,” Harness said. “But as far as customers, I haven’t heard anything about customers going in and basically loitering.”
The discussion was part of a larger talk the sheriff gave about duties of the department and concerns he had for the county. He made his remarks Tuesday at the Sevier County Courthouse.
The speech, and questions from the audience, frequently returned to Muslim residents or visitors to the county.
“(Have) you have ever read the first page of the Koran?” Mary Willocks, a Blount County Tea Party member, asked from the back of the crowd. “I’m going to paraphrase, but I did a five-week study on this at our church. First page of the Koran says, ‘You cannot be a Muslim unless you believe in Islam, and you will believe in Islam, either voluntarily or by force, or we’re going to kill you.’ There is no such thing as a modern, good Muslim.”
Willocks told of a Christian church in Dayton, Ohio, that she claimed had been visited by people in burqas acting aggressively toward the congregation. The activity, she said, resulted in an FBI presence at the church.
“The FBI came with several cars,” Willocks said. “They went through the security cameras, and one of them was on their most-wanted terrorist list. … The FBI has been at the church every service since.
“Here’s the important part that I wanted to make you aware of … you won’t see this on the Internet. The FBI said this is happening all over the country. They’re going into churches, they’re being aggressive, they’re being controversial, and the government is not allowing this to be reported anywhere. They’re squashing it because they’re Muslims and they’re Islamic terrorists, is what they are.”
“Obama’s relatives,” someone in the crowd said.
“The FBI told them, ‘You are no longer safe in your church,’” Willocks said. “Don’t be caught unaware in your church service.”
Seals said Sevier County churches would be protected.
“A lot of the churches here … most churches in Sevier County … they’ve got people that’s in there that’s armed,” Seals said. “As you all know, our president is Muslim. I don’t care what he says. He belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. I don’t care what he says. I’m a firm believer of that.”
Steve Osborn, former president of the Sevier County Tea Party, asked the sheriff if police monitor local Muslims.
“We do know that we have a growing Muslim influence in Gatlinburg,” Osborn said, saying Muslim adherents gather at a location on the Parkway in Gatlinburg.
“(They) use their upper room for their Friday prayers. The Muslims have been reported to be aggressive in the local restaurants, etc.”
Osborn asked what Seals was doing to monitor the groups.
“Are you, in law enforcement, aggressively or actively looking into this group for potential terrorist activities?” Osborn asked.
“This is the first that I have received any information,” Seals said. “I didn’t know that they were up there. What we have to do is, identify who they are and then pass it along.”
Seals said he would discuss the matter with the FBI and other law enforcement leaders in the community.
http://tinyurl.com/obmrce3
***UPDATE***
It would seem there is something in the water in East Tennessee these days folks, or should we chalk this up to the beginning of another election cycle marred by the use of local muslims as political tools for fear mongering politicians to scare up votes….
Hamilton County, TN Sheriff Jim Hammond, speaking to the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club on Monday, made a number of disparaging remarks toward Muslims, reminiscent of the Red Scares of the 20s and 50s. According to reports from the Times Free Press, Sheriff Hammond stated to the local Republican group;
“Islam is communism with a god,” he said, likening the religion to communism in the 1950s.
“[Islam is] a state, wrapped in a religion so they can get the tax breaks, so they cannot have government intrusion into their mosques. They are able to use our own system against us,” Hammond said. “Islam is very good at what they do. They have built a structure to take over this country. And many of the pieces are in place.”
Hammond clarified he’s not talking about all the estimated 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, just a dangerous sect of what he called jihadists.
“Say it’s only 5 percent of the 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion,” he said. “Then you’ve got some real danger.”
Thank God for his half hearted qualification to appear “politically correct”. Unfortunately the true sentiments of Sheriff Hammond’s statement ring through with your first reading of his words. Sheriff Hammond believes the Muslims in his district are deserving of ire and suspicion….so much so that he is willing to use the power of his office to spread his own personal prejudices. Sheriff Hammond should immediately resign, his comments and open prejudice has shown the people of Tennessee that he would be incapable of treating Muslim residents of his country equally under the law, and therefore is not deserving of a position in law enforcement or political office.