CAIRO – Making history for American Muslims, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Darryl W. Perry has named Missourian Muslim citizen Will Coley as his running mate during presidential race.
“What he represented to me was the ability to put a human face on a lot of the policy positions being discussed today — immigration, domestic policies toward the Muslim community, the effects of political rhetoric on minorities as well as the fact that, in our foreign policy, most of the people we send to deal with foreign countries overseas are just old white guys,” Coley told The Daily Times.
“… They don’t have any intimate understanding or knowledge of the cultures in play,” the national director of Muslims4Liberty added.
Perry is one of 15 candidates seeking the Libertarian nomination for US president.
He and Coley will be making several campaign appearances in the run-up to the party’s nominating convention, which will be held May 26-30 in Orlando, Fla.
A libertarian activist and media personality, Perry chose Coley because “he has intimate knowledge and insight both of the religion, and the cultures of the countries (the US military) has been actively bombing or occupying,” according to a press release.
The campaign added that Coley would be the first Muslim candidate for vice president.
According to the Perry campaign, Coley “has amassed a considerable following by preaching a message that simultaneously discourages violence while encouraging open-mindedness towards Muslims.”
Coley’s Muslims4Liberty is described on its website as “an organization primarily of American Muslims, who are committed to advancing the cause of liberty from a principled and Islamic perspective.”
He decided to become a political activist after he attended a Smoky Mountains Tea Party Patriots meeting in 2011 in which Bill French, a self-taught expert on “political Islam,” claimed that Islamic law was gaining ground in Tennessee.
“It was seeing a man tell an audience full of people that they should fear their children being in a classroom next to my children,” Coley said.
“A division like that hasn’t existed in this country since the 1960s. As Americans, we should do everything in our power to ensure that kind of division doesn’t come back into our country.”
Coley was also a guest speaker at political events around the country such as the Porcupine Freedom Festival in New Hampshire and the Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention.
“That was the first day,” he said.
“It was all born here in Maryville. Since then I’ve spoken at some of the biggest conservative and libertarian events in the county.”