ROBERT SPENCER: What One Illinois Speaker Said About Islam and America Has People Talking. “The video, which began circulating on Wednesday and has over 560,000 views as of Thursday afternoon, is arresting on a number of levels. It shows a woman wearing a hijab and leading a prayer at the Illinois General Assembly, which is not all that odd in itself: The General Assembly often features clergy of various religions leading the assembled legislators in prayer. Muslim clerics, however, are universally male, and so in this case, we have a Muslim layperson leading the solons in prayer. What she says, however, is far more striking than the event itself.”