CHAROTTE, N.C. — A far-right influencer pardoned by President Donald Trump in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, filmed himself in Charlotte Douglas International Airport this week ranting against Muslim prayer rugs in the airport chapel. “Hey, guys, we’re here at the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport,” Jake Lang says in a video posted on social media. Referring to the CLT chapel, he ...

Far-right activist Jake Lang shouts to the crowd as he departs after a demonstration near the World Trade Center on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, on Sept. 11, 2026, in New York.

Andres Kudacki/Getty Images North America/TNS

CHAROTTE, N.C. — A far-right influencer pardoned by President Donald Trump in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, filmed himself in Charlotte Douglas International Airport this week ranting against Muslim prayer rugs in the airport chapel.

“Hey, guys, we’re here at the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport,” Jake Lang says in a video posted on social media. Referring to the CLT chapel, he wrongly asserts that “this is basically a mosque now sponsored by your tax dollars.”

Lang’s breath quickens as he lifts a rug and apparently moves it elsewhere in the chapel. “This is what we’re doing in America now,” he says. “Shame. We’re being Islamified.”

In a caption in all capital letters above his video, he writes, “Charlotte North Carolina used to be a Christian strong hold but now we are mocked with Qurans & prayer rugs inside our chapels!!!”

Lang spent four years in jail awaiting trial on charges that included attacking police officers with a baseball bat during the riots. After he received Trump’s pardon in January 2025, he announced a bid for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat but didn’t appear on the primary ballot.

In June, he was charged in North Texas with making a terroristic threat outside a county courthouse where a Black teen was being tried for fatally stabbing a white student at a track meet. In March, authorities in Washington D.C. filed a misdemeanor charge against Lang for telling a police commander that he should be “put down like a dead dog” and “hung” in front of the Capitol.

This week, Lang’s comments and actions at Charlotte’s airport drew rebuke from Jibril Hough, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte. He’s also the first Muslim chaplain at the airport.

“This is a guy who got charged with insurrection,” Hough told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday. “This is a guy who’s the real threat to America. So it should be taken seriously. Racists and Islamophobes like this guy have influence and support.”

The airport chaplaincy is an interfaith, non-profit organization, Hough said. Located on the third floor of the main terminal across from the USO, the chapel is for worshipers of all faiths, he said. Catholic Mass is celebrated there, for instance, he said.

“We’re not pushing our faith on anyone,” Hough said.

Muslims pray five times a day, which may explain why more Muslims than people of other faiths are in the chapel at times, he said.

Hough said he paid for the rugs with contributions. “They are not taxpayer-funded,” he said. “And it’s an interfaith chaplaincy and a non-profit. It’s not like a state-sponsored thing that this guy is trying to promote that it is.”

An airport spokesperson didn’t reply to an Observer reporter’s request for comment.

Hough said security near the chapel “is very lax. It’s not like we have security walking the floor up there.”

He said he’ll be at the airport as usual at 12:30 p.m. Friday for Jumu‘ah, the weekly Friday prayer.

“We’re not going overboard,” Hough said about security. “We’ll just be vigilant. We’ll definitely keep our eyes open for suspicious persons.”