GOP lawmaker warns of ‘invasion’ of ‘Diaper heads’ in email to House colleagues
A four-term Republican lawmaker has emailed his House colleagues with a racist message warning of an impending “invasion” of “Diaper heads.”
The message from state Rep. Richard Marple (R-Hookset), which was sent before the terrorist attack in Paris, was emailed to all 400 state representatives with the subject line, “Four wives? Yup n Miochighan.”
Marple included a link to a YouTube video that claims Muslim immigrants in Michigan routinely receive public assistance for themselves and their four wives. “Muslim men are allowed four wives,” the video narrator intones. “So when they immigrate to America, they simply list wife number two, three and four as extended family to qualify for welfare and a myriad of other taxpayer-funded government programs.”
“So if you live in Michigan and you are Muslim,” the narrator continues, “there is no need to assimilate into American culture to get a job. You simply call the Public Assistance office…”
“Coming to a State near you!” warned Marple in his email. “’Oh’ ‘Yes’ it is coming here too!”
“1200 to 2,000 a day are coming here. Obama asked for to have 10,000 then it expanded to 100,000 [then within] a week it went to 180,000,” Marple wrote, apparently referencing (inaccurately) the increased number of refugees the United States will accept next year in response to the Syrian refugee crisis.
“That is a lot of Diaper heads,” Marple declared.
”Diaper head” is, of course, a common racial epithet for individuals of Middle Eastern descent that refers to the stereotypical image of Arabs wearing turbans. After 9/11, it was used to paint all Arabs as terrorists, as when public figures from televangelist Jimmy Swaggart to Louisiana Congressman John Cooksey warned that authorities should be suspicious of individuals “with a diaper on their head and a fan-belt around their waist.”
Marple concluded his email warning of an impending invasion. “The thing is,” he wrote, “these that Obama is bringing in does not have a wife or family with them! This a invasion! Wake up people we are being taken under with out a shot fired! Obama’s pen does the same thing! If this pisses you off! GOOD!”
This is not the first time Marple has made headlines with his outlandish comments. In a 2008 Concord Monitor op-ed, Marple claimed the U.S. Constitution prohibits a woman from being elected president. “At the very least a constitutional amendment to change the language will be required,” he wrote.
Three years later, he joined Orly Taitz in the attempt by Birthers to keep Pres. Obama off the ballot in New Hampshire. The Concord Monitor reported Marple’s assertion that the British Nationality Act makes Obama a British citizen, and therefore ineligible to be elected president, because his father was born in Kenya. In a message on Taitz’ website, Marple explained, “The usurper is a British subject by birth!
Update: I see Susan Bruce beat me to the punch with this story.