(Daily Herald) Organizers of the Arlington Heights Memorial Day parade defend allowing an organization deemed by critics to be an anti-Muslim hate group to march, saying that though the group’s positions are extreme, they feared a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.
A local chapter of ACT for America was one of about 100 units to march in the village’s centennial parade last Monday.
ACT, which calls itself the nation’s largest national security grass-roots organization, advocates for upholding Western values and combating the threat of radical Islam, according to the organization’s website.
But the Southern Poverty Law Center put the group on its list of domestic hate groups “because it pushes wild anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, denigrates American Muslims and deliberately conflates mainstream and radical Islam.”
