A leading Muslim rights group issued a harsh response to House Republican allegations that Huma Abedin’s family and other prominent Muslim-Americans working in the U.S. government have direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. Abedin is a longtime aide of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) spokesperson, Corey Saylor, calls the questioning of the loyal, patriotic American Muslims beyond pale. He believes they are baseless and based on old conspiracy theories that are anti-Muslim.

Five House GOP members including Michelle Bachman, a former candidate for the presidency, sent the Inspector Generals of the State Department, Homeland Security, National Intelligence, Justice Department and Defense department, letters that questioned whether Clinton’s aide Adedin and other Muslims were part of a Islamic plot by extremists to infiltrate the government of the U.S.

CAIR is a Washington based advocacy group for Islam that was founded back in 1994. It is not the only one condemning the letters written by House members. Republican John McCain, the former presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 2008, gave a strong defense of Abedin.

He called the allegation against Clinton’s aide sinister and ugly. He condemned the actions of his Republican colleagues from the House and said no one, much less, a member of Congress, should launch degrading attacks against other Americans on just the basis of fear of who they might be and ignorance of what they might stand for.

Saylor said that Abedin along with the other Muslim officials that appear in the letter written by the House members are all American citizens. He says trying to help their country, while Bachman is punishing them for offering their services while under a Democratic administration.