John R. Bennett is an American politician who served as the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party from April 2021 to April 2022 and as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 2011 until 2019. Bennett has been a controversial member of the Oklahoma Republican Party. He has been criticized for Islamophobic comments and for receiving an award from the Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group Center for Security Policy. Early life Bennett served in the United States Marine Corps and worked as the pastor of Lee Creek Assembly of God in Muldrow, Oklahoma. He served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a Christian of the Pentecostal denomination. Politics Oklahoma House of Representatives Bennett was first elected to the Oklahoma Legislature in 2011. He served in the 53rd Oklahoma Legislature, 54th Oklahoma Legislature, 55th Oklahoma Legislature, and the 56th Oklahoma Legislature before retiring in 2019. 54th Legislature In 2013, Bennett helped create the "counter-terrorism legislative caucus" and worked with Frank Gaffney and his Center for Security Policy (CSP) to try to "ban any foreign law that may limit Oklahoman's constitutional rights". The law was seen as an attempt to ban Sharia Law. The law was denounced by both the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)'s Oklahoma affiliate and the Oklahoma American Civil Liberties Union. Bennett was later given the "National Defender of Freedom" award by the CSP in 2016. The CSP is a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group. At an 2014 event with constituents in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Bennett referred to Islam as "a cancer in our nation that needs to be cut out" and claimed that there is "[no] difference between moderate and radical Islam." Bennett also claimed that "90%" of the Qur'an "is violence." Later that year, Bennett was the author of successful legislation to require school districts to require schools to provide the same access to school facilities for religious groups as it does for other groups and allow the students to organize prayer groups. 55th Oklahoma Legislature In 2016, Bennett campaigned on introducing legislation to ban the CAIR from Oklahoma calling them a "terrorist organization." He later hosted an interim legislative study to examine the threat of "radical Islam" posed to the state. Later that year in November, Bennett posted on his Facebook page a photograph of Hillary Clinton with a caption suggesting that she should be executed by firing