The Rev. O’Neal Dozier, a controversial member of the Broward Judicial Nominating Committee, has resigned the post after he said Gov. Jeb Bush’s office asked him to step down.

Dozier, whose recent comments about Islam in a news release and on a radio talk show sparked outrage among Muslims, said Monday he did not talk to Bush, but he said the governor’s office was unhappy with his remarks. The committee, which Dozier has been on since 2001, nominates judges in South Florida.

“I was asked to resign,” Dozier said, declining to say who specifically made the request. Dozier said he submitted his letter of resignation Sunday.

Dozier, 57, is a key figure in Republican Charlie Crist’s effort to reach black voters in the attorney general’s race for governor.

Neither Bush nor Crist could be reached for comment.

The pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Dozier is leading a protest over a mosque’s planned move to the city’s black community.

In a news release late last month, Dozier called Islam “a cult” and said the mosque’s plans have residents in the predominantly “black Christian neighborhood” feeling less safe and secure.

“Their general welfare is being jeopardized by knowing that Muslims are invading their neighborhood,” Dozier said.

He said residents worry that Muslims will convert vulnerable young black people to Islam.

“With such a cult in our neighborhood, we believe that our neighborhood could become a breeding ground for terrorists,” he said.
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Dozier was unapologetic for his comments and said he regrets that he was not able to speak his mind as a political appointee.

“I don’t see the crime I committed,” he said. “We’re fighting for freedom in Iraq. I guess there’s an exception to that when you accept an appointment.”

In references to the war in Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City, Dozier said, “Troops are being killed by Muslims” and “The Twin Towers were blown up by Muslims.”

Dozier is a prominent black Republican who has recruited blacks to the GOP and advised President Bush. He was nominated to the judicial screening committee in 2001, and Gov. Bush reappointed him two years later. The governor also spoke at Dozier’s church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2003.

When President Bush campaigned at the Office Depot Center in 2004, Dozier gave the invocation.
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In Broward County, Dozier has been a controversial figure on the judicial screening panel, asking judge candidates if they were “God-fearing.”

Dozier said he was learning that he needed to “just do right and please God and not try to please man.”

“I still love the governor,” he said. “I just hope they replace me with another black with a law degree.”

4) So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

5) And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

6) Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus,

7) who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

8) But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

9) Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

10) and said, ?O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

11) And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.?
And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

12) Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.