Muslim backers decry event set for Marriott

The nation’s largest anti-Muslim group is scheduled to hold its annual conference at a Marriott International property 4 miles from the White House, despite pressure from advocacy groups that have been calling on the hotelier to cancel the event.

ACT for America, which has promoted its ties to the Trump administration, is hosting a two-day conference at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va., on Oct. 2 and 3. The group’s website says the event will be “the nation’s largest national securityfocused grass roots gathering.”

It was not clear how many people would attend, but ACT for America — which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — says it has 750,000 members.

Marriott said it will not cancel the conference.

“We are a hospitality company that provides public accommodations and function space,” a Marriott spokesperson said in an email. “Acceptance of business does not indicate support or endorsement of any group or individual.”

Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group, says it sent a letter to Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president and chief executive, on Sept. 11 asking him to reconsider the company’s stance on the event.

“Marriott clearly and proudly states on its website that ‘diversity and inclusion is fundamental to our core values and strategic business goals,’ ” the letter said. “We believe that hosting this antiMuslim convention is antithetical to this otherwise clear commitment.”

ACT for America’s website says: “ACT for America’s mission is clear. Political correctness and cowardness has no place in America. We proudly stand strong on our JudeoChristian foundation. We will not be silenced. We will not fail.”

ACT for America, founded a decade ago by Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-born Christian.

“ACT for America has a direct line to Donald Trump,” Gabriel wrote in a fundraising email last year. The group, she added, “has played a fundamental role in shaping his views and suggested policies with respect to radical Islam.”

The group was also behind anti-Muslim demonstrations across the country this summer that attracted white supremacist groups.