Old Forge School Board president and Republican state representative candidate Frank Scavo portrayed Muslims as terrorists, pedophiles or rapists in posts on his personal Facebook page during the last four years.

Confronted this week, Scavo, 56, apologized for the posts and took down the page. He called the posts "stupid," "all in poor taste without a doubt" and "too general."

Scavo blamed himself for getting caught up in an anti-Muslim "frenzy" and "the crazy" that followed 2015 attacks by radicalized Muslims in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

"These are all posts that I regret," Scavo said Thursday. "That's not part of my philosophy, that's not what I subscribe to ... It's too general. It was a general description of that faith and there are good people inside that faith... Every religion has its problems, but the majority of people inside those religions are peace-loving."

He noted sometimes radicalized Muslims attack other Muslims.

"So the Muslims have the same problems we do," he said. "That faction that threatens peace … that's an issue. So, I think that's what I was trying to point out. I didn't do a good job of it."

Scavo, a real estate investor, faces Bridget Malloy Kosierowski, a registered nurse from Waverly Twp., in a March 12 special election for the 114th state House District seat left vacant by the October death of Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich.

Four years of posts were reviewed on Scavo's Facebook page dating back to Jan. 1, 2015, after a Republican voter provided a sample of them. Scavo's attacks on Islam and Muslims stretched well into 2016.﻿ The Republican voter asked for anonymity.

In various posts, Scavo praised China's restrictions on Muslim prayer as "positive government protection" and suggested running over Muslim protesters laying in a street would be "the smart thing to do." He also posted a picture of a pig holding a Quran and mocking the Islamic holy text's contents.

"Let's all freak out now … do you understand ISLAMICS will use any excuse to kill!!!" Scavo wrote in a Jan. 13, 2015, post. A few days later, on Jan. 15, Scavo blasted Muslims who say others are racist when denying them a chance to pray and wrote: "These people want your country and the world. You better watch it!"

Several times, Scavo repeated the falsehood that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, an opinion long held erroneously by many Obama critics, despite the fact that Obama has always said he is Christian.

In December 2015, when President Donald Trump, then still only a candidate, called for a ban on letting any Muslims into the country, Scavo celebrated in a Dec. 8 Facebook post: "In light of Donald Trumps comments, I am immediately disavowing President Barack Obama in favor of Trumps # AMERICA FIRST IMMIGRATION POLICY. thank you."

Only five days earlier, Scavo defended himself from Facebook commenters' claims he's a racist.

"I have NO problem with you calling me racist, Islamaphobe or whatever else you pansies want," Scavo wrote in a Dec. 3, 2015 post. "I know Evil, threats and lies. And will call them out. I also know Climate Change is not as dangerous as a Muslim with an IED." In another post the same day, he reposted a link titled, "Why every Muslim is a terrorist."

Scavo's attacks on Muslims and Islam became more sporadic when he ran for school director in 2017, and for state Senate in 2018, but resumed in January.

"Muslims swear on the Quran, because the Quran allows the practice of lies and treachery against the infidel," Scavo wrote Jan. 5. "It is even defined and spelled out with the word taqiyya."

In Islam, taqiyyah allows Muslims to deny they are Muslims only if revealing their religion endangers their life, according to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, an organization devoted to explaining Islam. Nothing in Islam allows for a general permission to lie, according to the institute, which cites American Muslim scholars.

Marwan Wafa, Ph.D., chancellor of Penn State Scranton and a practicing Muslim, called Scavo's posts "absolutely offensive."

"If you were on the receiving end and somebody presents absolutely wrong information about your faith, whatever your faith might be, how would that feel?" Wafa asked.

Wafa said Scavo should remove the posts and spend time learning about Islam as any good educator would do because "educated people should do better."

He declined to call on Scavo to drop out of the race or resign from the school board.

"I do hope he will do the right thing as an educator," Wafa said. "This is America. The greatness of this country has evolved over the years as a result of being an inclusive society, a society that respects all people regardless of whatever differentiating factors."

Islam, like all religions and nations "has a lot of good people and a few bad apples," Wafa said. "And amongst Muslims, that tends to be true, just like the Christian world or Jewish or Hindu or whatever the case might be, (you have people) who do unfortunately abuse or misinterpret the faith expectations and requirements and do it in the name of the faith either out of ignorance or intent to distort the truth. It's sad when educated people don't take the time really to verify the facts from fiction."

Scavo said he plans to call Wafa and apologize.

Wafa said he would welcome the call and might invite Scavo to join him for a cup of coffee so he could meet a Muslim.

"That's wonderful," he said of Scavo's decision to take down his Facebook page. "I'm so delighted he took this step."

Republican committee members from the 114th state House District nominated Scavo as the party's candidate by four votes and the Lackawanna County Party executive committee backed Scavo by one vote.

Kosierowski said she is glad Scavo took down the posts, but declined to comment further. Laureen Cummings, the chairwoman of the 114th Republican committee, declined to comment.

"The views expressed in these posts do not express the views of the Republican Party," county party chairman Lance Stange Jr. said in a statement. "These posts add nothing to the thorough civil discourse we should be having. We all need to be better than this and focus on substantive solutions to the problems facing Pennsylvanians and Americans."

If elected state representative, Scavo said he would represent Muslims the same as anyone else.

"As a state representative, I would fight for their rights and our rights together, because we're all in this together," he said. "We're all paying taxes together … I have relationships with Muslims on the whole and Muslims on the whole, they're treated pretty rough."

Contact the writer:

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

570-348-9147, @BorysBlogTT