Exclusive: Sole Muslim woman on Trump religious committee resigning in protest
The only Muslim woman on US President Donald Trump's religious freedom committee is resigning, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Sameerah Munshi served on the Advisory Board of Lay Leaders on the Religious Liberties Commission, and is leaving the role "in protest" of the White House's decision to remove anti-Zionist Catholic commissioner Carrie Prejean-Boller from the panel, her resignation letter, seen by MEE on Thursday, said.
Prejean-Boller revealed on X on Thursday that the president, who appoints all the commissioners, has now fired her for what she believes is her stand against genocide committed by Israel in Gaza, and her pushback against those who call her antisemitic for her anti-Zionist views.
Boller's firing follows a viral video clip of a heated exchange at a February meeting of the commission, in which Prejean-Boller insists that Catholicism and Zionism are not compatible.
Middle East Eye has reached out to both the White House and the Department of Justice - under which the commission was established - for comment.
While the White House did not respond in time for publication, the Department of Justice only referred MEE to remarks on X posted by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who is the chairman of the Religious Liberty Commission.
"No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue," he wrote on 11 February, when he announced that Prejean-Boller was "removed" from the panel.
Prejean-Boller rejected the statement at the time, saying on X that only the US president had the right to fire her.
"If we are not free in America to abide by our religious beliefs and hold fast to them despite others’ disagreement, then in what country are we free to do so?" Munshi writes in her resignation letter.
She accused members of the commission of being "hostile" to Muslims and "mocking" the faith.
Isolated
There are no Muslims appointed as commissioners - the top tier - on this Trump-exclusive project, which was established in May 2025 to report directly to the president, usually once or twice a year.
All three Muslims involved were chosen by the administration to act in an advisory capacity: Munshi; director of the Religious Freedom Institute, Ismail Royer; and prominent scholar, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf.
'After I testified about Palestine, I stopped receiving the witness lists before each hearing'
- Sameerah Munshi
Munshi was formerly executive director of the socially conservative non-profit Coalition of Virtue.
Munshi told MEE that ever since she first provided testimony to the commission in September 2025 on what she said was a constitutionally-protected right in schools to protest Israel’s killing of Palestinians, she started to feel isolated from the programme.
"After I testified about Palestine, I stopped receiving the witness lists before each hearing, so I don't know if that was a coincidence, if it was organisational, just a miscommunication on their end, or if they literally held it against me about what I testified on," she described.
It was after that meeting, however, that Munshi was first approached by Prejean-Boller, and the two women formed a bond.
"Carrie has been wonderful. We've become pretty good friends at this point, and we've shared a lot," Munshi told MEE.
"I think what's really important about Carrie that I haven't seen within the conservative movement is that she really respects Muslims."
More recently Prejean-Boller has also spoken out against the US-Israeli war on Iran, which is the other reason Munshi said she is resigning from the commission.
"This government’s unlawful killing of children and civilians in Iran [is] at the urging of a genocidal state," Munshi writes in her letter, referring to Israel.
"Not only is the American public against this aggression, but our tax dollars are funding the very violence that we oppose, both against innocent Palestinians and now Iranians. It is painfully obvious through their actions that this administration has no regard for the Constitution’s protection of free expression and religious liberty, nor its detailing of war powers."
'I am disgusted'
After the clip of Prejean-Boller's remarks and debate last month gained international attention, The Heritage Foundation's Jason Bedrick, who is on the Advisory Board of Legal Experts for the Religious Liberty Commission, said on X that "Islamist" Munshi started filming Prejean-Boller before she began her remarks, and also suggested that she was texting Prejean-Boller talking points for her argument.
MEE put the question to Munshi.
"I deny providing her talking points. Me and Carrie were texting during the hearing," she said.
'I am absolutely disgusted with this president. He betrayed the American people, and he's betrayed our constitution'
- Carrie Prejean-Boller
"That morning I was in that meeting... it was it was a joke. It was a clown show in there. And I was frustrated. Carrie was frustrated. She told me to start recording her in case they didn't call on her, because that's what she was worried about," Munshi said.
Prejean-Boller told MEE on Thursday she was feeling sidelined that day because of her public advocacy for Palestinians on her social media accounts, and for wearing a Palestinian flag pin.
Patrick, the chairman, asked her before the meeting if she planned to bring up Gaza.
"You posted on the way to the airport about a free Palestine," she said he told her. "And I said, 'Yeah, yeah, I do want a free Palestine. And I have every right to post that.'"
"Before this hearing, I had recommended four Jewish American witnesses and two Palestinian organisations to speak... because I wanted it fair and balanced," Prejean-Boller told MEE.
No one on that list was accepted.
MEE asked Prejean-Boller why she chose to speak out on anti-Zionism, given the ramifications around the country that have included students being expelled, people losing jobs, and ramped up online harassment and death threats.
She began to cry.
"I had to do it. I knew that it had to be done because of what I what I'd seen, and the poor Palestinian people... I had to speak for them. I couldn't just sit there in this fancy room with important people and allow them to just disregard [Palestinians] as human beings," she said.
"It was one of the best moments of my life to be appointed to protect religious freedom," she added.
But her removal from the commission as she advocated against the killing of Palestinian chidlren, she said, "is un-American".
"I am disgusted. I am absolutely disgusted with this president. He betrayed the American people, and he's betrayed our constitution," she told MEE.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed 72,136 Palestinians, including 651 who were killed since a ceasefire was brokered by the Trump administration.
Lawmakers from both parties are now looking into whether there were Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) violations committed by the Religious Liberty Commission, involving a lack of balance, transparency, and fair representation as protected by the First Amendment, Prejean-Boller said.
Religious groups had already filed a lawsuit challenging the commission's existence and motives before she had even made her now infamous speech.
All those serving on the commission are unpaid volunteers, though Munshi said travel expenses for meetings were covered by the administration. She did not, however, accept those funds, she told MEE.
"I want to be very clear: I am not resigning out of fear or intimidation from anyone affiliated with the Commission, the government, or any interest group. I am resigning because I have seen firsthand the injustice perpetrated by members of this commission, and I am unwilling to be associated with it any longer," she writes in her letter.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
Read Full Article on Middle East Eye →