Kansas official shows slides of criminals named Mohammed as a 'warning' to citizens

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During a government meeting on Wednesday, Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn went on a 13-minute rant
In the bizarre speech , Peterjohn went through a slideshow of men arrested in the U.S. named Mohammed
Peterjohn said it was 'irrelevant' that not all Muslims are terrorists
He said he was trying to warn citizens of a coming 'Islamist threat in this country' so they could 'be prepared'
Peterjohn also condemned President Obama and drew scrutiny to the president's tenuous connection to Islam through his father

By Dailymail.com Reporter and Associated Press

Published: 20:33 EST, 19 November 2015 | Updated: 15:47 EST, 20 November 2015

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Muslim groups are voicing their outrage after a Kansas county commissioner gave a 13-minute rant at a government meeting on Wednesday, which included a slideshow of convicted criminals named 'Mohammed'.

At the meeting, Sedgewick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn admitted that what he was about to say was 'politically correct' and that it would make some people uncomfortable.

He then said that he wanted to speak about what he called a growing Islamist threat as 'a public warning for citizens.

'I’ve heard some folks say, "Well, not all Muslims are terrorists." True but irrelevant,' Peterjohn, commissioner of the second most populous county in Kansas, said. 'Not all Russians were communists. Not all Germans were Nazis.'

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Warning? Sedgewick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn (pictured) went on a 13-minute rant at a government meeting recently, in which he warned of 'the Islamist threat ...inside our gates'

'The Islamist threat in this country is inside our gates,' he said. 'Be prepared.'

He then launched into the slideshow of people named Mohammed or some derivation of it, who had been convicted of terrorism charges.

Among those depicted in the slides were Mohamed Atta, one of leaders of the September 11 attacks and John Allen Muhammed, who was executed for the 2002 Washington, D.C. sniper attacks.

'A lot of people struggle to identify Islamic terrorism and I figured Muhammad is not a name for anyone who is not a Muslim, in my experience, so there is an awful amount of Muhammads who have engaged in a whole host of heinous and vile and despicable acts,' Peterjohn said, according to the Wichita Eagle.

Peterjohn was also critical of President Obama's administration and voiced suspicion about the president's tenuous connection to Islam through his father.

Controversial: During the rant, Peterjohn launched into a sideshow of men arrested in the U.S. with the name 'Mohammed'. He said it was 'irrelevant' that not all Muslims are terrorists

'We live in a time when our leadership cannot identify Islamic terrorism as Islamic terrorism,' Peterjohn said.

'Unlike the president, my father was a Christian, not a Muslim, did not have a Muslim stepfather, or educated in a Muslim school overseas,' Peterjohn said.

President Obama's biological father was Muslim, but left Barack's mother when the future president was just four years old.

He was raised Christian, and briefly lived in Indonesia four five years in elementary school when his mother remarried an Indonesian man.

The Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has urged Kansas political and religious leaders to repudiate views expressed by Peterjohn.

'What I am hearing from our community is a lot of people are very concerned about this crescendo of calls from different politicians, mostly unfortunately Republican politicians, that are almost racing to see who is more bigoted than the other,' said Moussa Elbayoumy, Kansas board chairman for CAIR.

Mohammed is one of the most common names in the world, he noted.

The Kansas remarks added to an increasingly Islamophobic atmosphere that can lead to violence and intimidation targeting American Muslims, Elbayoumy said.

Hussam Madi, spokesman for the Islamic Society of Wichita, said a lot of 'real good people' — in sports and politics - also have the name Mohammed.

Peterjohn has refused to apologize for his remarks however.

'My discussion was an attempt to hopefully try and convince the folks who do not understand the clear and present danger our country and the Western civilization faces,' Peterjohn said. 'I take my oath of office seriously and also I take the responsibility of trying to keep this community safe seriously.'