Washington State County Prosecutor Under Fire For Wife's Anti-Muslim Comments
A newly elected prosecutor in Washington State is under fire for a string of anti-Muslim, racist and other insensitive comments his wife made on social media and news comment sites.
Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Haskell told various media outlets he doesn’t share the views of his wife, Lesley Haskell, after her online opinions were exposed late last month in the Inlander, a weekly newspaper. But since then, local civil rights activists say the prosecutor should have gone farther and denounced his wife’s comments.
The prosecutor, a Republican, and his wife did not respond to an email request from Hatewatch for comment.
The Inlander article said Lesley Haskell made a Facebook comment in January about a Muslim mayor in the Netherlands who, after the terrorist attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices, said Muslims who "do not like freedom can pack your bags and leave.”
“I don't care what he said, I do not trust muzlims [sic] no matter what," she posted in response, the newspaper reported.
In another post, she wrote: “Islam is not a religion, it’s a cult. Cults have no protections under our Constitution. (Muslims) should leave and live in a country that supports their archaic beliefs.”
Media coverage of her comments caught the attention of Assistant U.S. Attorney Aine Ahmed, who threw a political fundraising event last year supporting Larry Haskell in challenging Breann Beggs for the vacant Spokane County prosecutor’s office.
“I think those comments are dangerous … dangerous because people who are uneducated and don't know Muslims take it for face value, then people think it’s acceptable,” Ahmed, himself a Muslim, told KHQ-TV.
Beggs, who has been involved in several social justice cases, expressed dismay about the prosecutor’s lackluster response.
“It is not enough to refrain from hate speech,” Beggs told Hatewatch. “Our elected leaders must speak out against ignorance and bigotry.’’
But Liz Moore, executive director of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, questioned whether Lesley Haskell's public comments about Muslims and other minorities mirror her husband's views, the Inlander reported.
“I think everyone in our community needs to feel confident that they are treated fairly by everyone in public office, and in the criminal justice system in particular," Moore told the newspaper. “If I were a member of the Islamic faith, this would make me have questions about how I would be treated or perceived.”
Haskell has since apologized for the “angst” caused by his wife’s comments, and said he doesn’t share her views about Muslim. But Lesley Haskell’s online comments weren’t limited to Muslims.
After a young black man recently pleaded guilty in the beating death of a World War II veteran, in another case prosecuted by her husband, Lesley Haskell posted a comment calling the defendant and his family “pieces of vile garbage” who “are evil, scum, wastes on society (who) should be annihilated,” the Spokesman-Review reported.
When former South African President Nelson Mandela died in December 2013, Lesley Haskell posted that she didn’t “understand the reverence for this man” and wasn’t about to mourn his passing. “He might have done some charitable things, but he was a communist,” she wrote. “When did we, in the U.S., start idolizing communists? Oh yeah, in 2008” — an apparent reference to the election of President Obama.
As the controversy surrounding her online commentary continues to swirl, a new report today in The Spokesman-Review disclosed that Lesley Haskell also commented on criminal cases still under investigation or are being prosecuted by her husband.
Larry Haskell told the newspaper it would be his preference that his wife avoid public comments on cases in the prosecutor’s office, but has no legal ability to control comments made by her or other private citizens.
