Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is facing intense statewide and national condemnation from Muslim advocacy organizations and civil rights groups after stating he hates Islam, referring to the religion as a “demonic death cult,” and arguing that Americans should be given “permission to hate again.”

The controversial remarks were made during a recent appearance on “FlashPoint,” a conservative Christian web talk show. During the broadcast, Beckwith, a Noblesville pastor who took office in early 2025 alongside Gov. Mike Braun, directly targeted religion.

“I am going to call on others to hate [Islam], because I hate Islam. It is a death cult,” Beckwith said on the web show. “Now I love Muslims, because they make great Christians when Jesus gets a hold of them, but I hate Islam. And we need to be okay with hating again.”

The comments drew immediate and fierce recoil from local and national organizations, who warned that such rhetoric from the state’s second-highest elected official poses a direct physical threat to the Muslim community.

“Indiana Muslim Advocacy Network is deeply concerned by comments made by Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith in a recent interview,” Maliha Zafar, executive director of the Indiana Muslim Advocacy Network, said in a statement provided to the Indianapolis Recorder. “Comments like these from elected officials are dangerous because they give people permission to hate and dehumanize Muslims, contributing to the growing climate of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence across the country.”

Zafar specifically pointed to the timing of the remarks, noting that they arrived during Eid al-Adha — one of the holiest times in the Islamic faith — and shortly after a deadly hate-driven shooting targeting a Muslim community in San Diego.

“Muslims in Indiana are not outsiders. This community is made up of your neighbors, business owners, teachers, doctors, taxpayers, and public servants,” Zafar said. “Muslims deserve to celebrate holidays and practice their faith without being targeted by elected officials using their platforms to demean Islam or make Hoosier Muslims feel unwelcome in their own state. Religious freedom means respecting people of all faiths, not publicly wishing they would cease to exist as they are.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, echoed those sentiments. The organization officially invited Beckwith to visit an Indiana mosque to engage directly with his Muslim constituents, emphasizing that using his platform to spread panic is “unbecoming of his office.”

“Lieutenant Governor Beckwith is using the station of his office to make it clear to residents in Indiana and across the country that he’s okay with people hating on Muslims, disparaging Islam, and that opens up the possibility of violence against our communities,” CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said.

Following the initial wave of backlash, Beckwith doubled down on his stance via social media. He argued that Sharia Law promotes the destruction of the Constitution and stated he will “never apologize for saying the United States of America is now and always should be one nation under God.”

U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, one of two Democrats representing Indiana in Congress and one of the few Muslim members of Congress, also condemned the lieutenant governor’s remarks.

“These remarks are outrageous, dangerous, and completely unacceptable from a public official,” Carson said in a released statement. “This rhetoric is hateful and targets an entire faith community, including countless Muslim Hoosiers who contribute to our state every single day as teachers, doctors, first responders, and small business owners. Hoosier Muslims and the billions of Muslims around the world deserve the same dignity and respect as anyone else. Leaders of both parties should unequivocally condemn these comments and reject hate in all its forms.”

This is not the first time Beckwith’s public remarks have drawn severe criticism. in 2025, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus strongly pushed back after Beckwith referred to the Three-Fifths Compromise — the historical agreement that prevented slave-holding states from counting enslaved people as whole persons for congressional representation — as a “great move.”

Advocacy groups are currently calling on other elected officials across Indiana to publicly condemn Beckwith’s remarks and stand in solidarity with not only with Muslim in Indiana, but across the globe.

Contact multimedia reporter Noral Parham at 317-762-7846. Follow him on X @3Noral.

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Noral Parham is the multi-media reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, one of the oldest Black publications in the country. Prior to joining the Recorder, Parham served as the community advocate of the MLK Center in Indianapolis and senior copywriter for an e-commerce and marketing firm in Denver.

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