Jake Lowary

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Tennessee state Sen. Mae Beavers told residents at a town hall in Macon County that Muslim terrorists are planning a jihad in the Bible Belt and are infiltrating churches.

Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet, held the town hall on Thursday. In the hour-long meeting, the Wilson County lawmaker had an exchange with a woman who said that she knew a local Muslim family and they were good people and "wouldn't hurt anybody," but there were some who were "adamant" about harmful acts.

In an audio recording of the town hall obtained by The Tennessean, Beavers responds by saying that we were with "intelligence people" this week who told her that Muslim terrorists were moving into the Bible Belt to orchestrate a jihad and "infiltrating churches."

"I was with some intelligence people this week. You wouldn't believe what's going on in this country; it would scare you to death," Beavers said. "We are the center of their attention because we're are the center of the Bible Belt. And they're purposely moving terrorists in here, and they're bringing their families in, and they're setting it up for a jihad, I can tell you right now.

"The Muslims, they believe in the Quran and the Quran says that you're going to kill all the infidels."

There was then a brief exchange between Beavers and the attendees about Muslim residents living locally.

"Something else that they're doing is they're doing is infiltrating the churches, they'll visit the churches and find out what's going on," she said at the meeting.

Asked about her comments in an interview, Beavers said the meeting was with "former intelligence officials" before the town hall on Thursday, but they told her in the meeting the information was not accurate.

“They had received some information they said was not entirely accurate,” she said, acknowledging that one meeting was before the town hall.

Beavers said she didn't recall talking about "a specific jihad," but said terrorism in Tennessee has been a topic of conversation and concern for her since she was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee several years ago.

"I know a lot of people that are concerned about the threat of terrorism, and that's what I was addressing," she said.

Reach Jake Lowary at jlowary@tennessean.com or on Twitter at@JakeLowary.