In 1833, Massachusetts became the last state in America to finally disestablish its official church and end the forced marriage of government and religion. Nearly two centuries later, Beacon Hill Democrats are racing the other direction: creating a permanent, state-sanctioned commission dedicated exclusively to one religion—Islam—complete with the power to recommend Muslims for government jobs and push legislation that prioritizes that community’s interests.
Senate Bill S.2134, filed by Sen. James Eldridge and rolling through the legislature, establishes an 11-member permanent “Commission on the Status of People Who Practice Islam.” Its statutory duties include identifying and recommending “qualified American Muslims for appointive positions at all levels of government, including boards and commissions.” It must recommend legislation to “combat Islamophobia.” It is ordered to “foster unity among the American Muslim community.” And it can solicit and accept gifts, donations, grants, bequests—or federal funds—with virtually no meaningful guardrails beyond existing law.
In plain English: a permanent, taxpayer-supported Islamic advisory body inside state government with a direct pipeline into hiring decisions and a mandate to shape anti-“Islamophobia” statutes. Iran, Qatar, or any well-funded Islamist network could theoretically funnel money into this commission. That should alarm every Massachusetts taxpayer who still believes in equal treatment under the law.
Massachusetts already runs a small army of identity commissions—for women, Latinos, LGBTQ youth, Black men and boys, and more. Those are bad enough as permanent bureaucracies of grievance. But Islam is not just another demographic checkbox. It is a comprehensive political, legal, and social system. In countries that still take its traditional rulings seriously, there is no minimum marriage age (Yemen remains a notorious example of child brides handed to older men), homosexuality can still carry the death penalty in roughly a dozen Muslim-majority nations, and women’s testimony and inheritance rights are explicitly unequal under classical jurisprudence.
The same progressive left that demands we “believe all women,” celebrates Pride Month, and treats any dissent on gender ideology as heresy is now building official state infrastructure for a faith tradition whose orthodox expressions reject those very values. The cognitive dissonance is breathtaking. Many of the loudest voices for this commission would be the first to face severe consequences under the legal systems still enforced in significant parts of the Muslim world. Yet they press ahead, blind to the contradiction.
This is not neutral civil-rights work. It is preferential treatment for one religion written into statute—complete with a paid executive director, office space, and the ability to influence appointments and legislation. No equivalent permanent commission exists for Christians, Jews, Hindus, or atheists. That is not equality. It is the opposite of the disestablishment Massachusetts fought to achieve in 1833.
Americans of every background—including Muslim Americans who reject political Islam—deserve equal protection, not special state machinery that elevates one group’s interests. Massachusetts already has hate-crime laws and civil-rights statutes that apply to everyone. Creating a religion-specific hiring and lobbying arm inside government is a dangerous step toward institutionalizing identity politics by faith.
If you are a residence of Massachusetts please take action on our ACTNOW campaign below and forward it to everyone you know.
Call your state senators and representatives today. Demand they kill S.2134 in the Senate Ways and Means Committee before it becomes law. Tell them Massachusetts does not need another permanent grievance commission, least of all one organized around a single religion with the power to shape hiring and legislation. The separation of church and state was hard-won. Don’t let Beacon Hill Democrats quietly reverse it under the banner of “inclusion.”
