Booker says Gabbard ‘endangering’ NJ with remarks on radical Islam, heavily-Muslim city; deputy responds

By Fox News · Fox News

Sen. Cory Booker and the top U.S. counter-terrorism official sparred Tuesday over DNI Tulsi Gabbard ’s reference to Paterson, New Jersey’s Muslim community during her speech to AmericaFest earlier this week. Booker, D-N.J., took issue with part of director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s speech to AmericaFest in Phoenix over the weekend, where she called out threats to the U.S. homeland from Islamist ideology. Booker ripped Gabbard for name-dropping his state’s third-largest city, Paterson. The city, between New York City and the Delaware Water Gap, is named for Irish immigrant and Constitution signatory William Paterson, but has a sizable, growing Arab Christian and Muslim community. TEXAS GOV ABBOTT DECLARES CAIR, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS TERRORIST GROUPS, PREVENTING LAND PURCHASES "Paterson is one of New Jersey’s oldest cities and has always embodied the best American values — industry, perseverance, and diversity," Booker tweeted Tuesday. "Tulsi Gabbard's dangerous attempt to sow fear, pit people against each other, and smear the Muslim Americans of Paterson, NJ is dishonest, cruel, and un-American — it endangers an entire community," said Booker, who hails from nearby Newark. Paterson reportedly has the second-highest percentage of Muslims behind Muslim-majority Hamtramck, Michigan. Paterson’s sister city is Ramallah, in the Palestinian West Bank, according to WKXW . MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP CAIR SUES TEXAS OVER ABBOTT'S ‘TERRORIST’ DESIGNATION "In Jersey, we know our state's diversity is our strength, and we stand up for our own," Booker said . During her speech, Gabbard warned that Islamist ideology both fuels terror groups that should be defeated "militarily" but also presents a " direct threat to freedom " because it is effectively "political" thought. Gabbard warned that such ideology is both political and a direct threat to freedom because it seeks to "create a global caliphate that governs us here in America" and seeks enforcement of Sharia Law g…