Although my comments were not intended as being anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, I acknowledge that some residents felt they were, and for that I am sorry,” the statement reads. “After deep reflection, I can honestly say that my words were poorly crafted and my feelings were inadequately expressed. Racism and discrimination is not my intent and is not in my heart.”
The trustee, whose presence has attracted large numbers of protesters at each of the last three Palos Township board meetings, first came under fire in late June after suggesting on Facebook that the area’s schools were filling with undocumented Middle Eastern students.
“Why are all our schools filling with Middle East students without proper documentation? What is Dan Lipinski 3rd district rep. (D) doing about it?” she wrote.
In another post, Brannigan expressed her aversion to movies made by “very wealthy liberals” who support Democrats like “Barack Hussein Obama,” and again criticized Lipinski for not doing more to restrict Middle Eastern immigration.
“In the 3rd district here in Illinois, our demographics include 25% Muslims of which very few integrate within the communities keeping themselves and their activities hidden from the general population,” she wrote. “Everywhere you turn, from Orland Park to Bridgeview, those numbers are increasing in leaps and bounds. We are allowing these people whether they have peaceful intentions or not into our country without question.”
Palos Township, which encompasses all or portions of Bridgeview, Hickory Hills, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Worth and Willow Springs, has one of the largest Arab populations in the state.
In the wake of Brannigan’s comments, dozens of Arab Americans and their allies, young and old, have picketed outside Palos Township offices before monthly board meetings to demand that she resign. A #ResignBrannigan petition launched online by the activist group Take On Hate, which is leading a coalition of groups calling for the trustee’s ouster, has received 1,030 signatures to date.
Brannigan defended her comments at the township’s July board meeting by invoking her First Amendment right to free speech. She said her statement about undocumented immigrants filling local schools, which Palos Consolidated School District 118 trustee Terry Heafey condemned as “without fact or evidence,” was meant to bring awareness to the community’s growing tax burden and the nation’s lax immigration system.
“I am very happy to see so many of you have come to this meeting with the same concerns, because after all, we all pay our fair share of property taxes and do not want to see poor mismanagement of that,” Brannigan said, before reciting the First Amendment.
Two days later, Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle released a statement calling on Brannigan to resign her seat on Cook County’s Commission on Women’s Issues, saying, in part, “Such viewpoints certainly do not reflect our values nor, in my opinion, the kind of representation we want on the commission.”
Brannigan vacated the county commission seat a short time later, citing the difficulty of making it to downtown meetings from the south suburbs, and later released a statement on her website that acknowledged the “quickfire selection of language” used in her controversial Facebook posts “was not the best choice and unintentionally far too broad in scope.”
She stopped short of apologizing in that statement but did say she was humbled and would “commit to being more sensitive and conscious to this moving forward.”
Brannigan’s statement Monday marks the first time she has apologized for the comments and offered publicly to meet with Arab American residents.
She said via email that she had already reached out to leaders of the township’s Arab community in hopes of improving relations and fostering a better understanding between them.
She does not, however, plan to resign, she said.
“I am beyond open and happy to sit with anyone who has legitimate concerns and explain my true intent,” Brannigan said. “I believe responsible public officials need to know when they do right and when they do wrong.
“Again, I regret that my words offended anyone. That was not my intent. Going forward, it is my hope that we can work together as a community for the benefit of everyone who lives in Palos Township be they Irish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Italian, Hispanic, Jewish or Middle Eastern.”
The coalition of activist groups leading the #ResignBrannigan campaign responded that they would not accept her apology, which it deemed “insincere,” “an example of political expediency,” and “too little, too late.”
“We asked for this apology months ago when it became clear that Brannigan had written racist social media posts attacking the township’s Arabs and Muslims, as well as its Middle East [sic] students,” Bassem Kawar, advocacy specialist for the Campaign to Take On Hate, said in a statement. “She refused back then to apologize, and is only doing this now to try to salvage her political career. We won’t accept it.”
The activists, who have been steadfast in calling for nothing less than Brannigan’s resignation, said plans were being made to protest at the township’s next meeting on Oct. 9
“For us, the outcome that the Muslim and Arab community wants is very simple,” activist and organizer Rush Darwish said after the July 10 meeting. “This trustee must resign — must resign her post. And until that happens, this crowd you saw here tonight, you will continue seeing until that result is met.”
zkoeske@tribpub.com
Twitter @ZakKoeske
