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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is refusing to criticize members of his own party for their Islamophobic comments over the past several days, instead promoting his own bigoted conspiracy theories targeting Muslims in the U.S.
In a social media post on Monday, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee) expressed a desire to remove Muslims from the country completely.
“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” he wrote.
The comment from Ogles, a member of the so-called “Freedom Caucus” in the House, directly contradicts First Amendment religious freedoms within the U.S. Constitution.
Other recent comments from Republican members of the House have been equally alarming.
In February, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) compared Muslims to dogs. And in early March, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) demanded the deportation of Muslims.
“No more Islamic immigration. Denaturalize, deport, repeat,” he said.
Responding to questions from reporters about the bigoted remarks during the House GOP policy retreat at the Trump Doral resort on Tuesday, Johnson said he had discussed with lawmakers in his conference the idea of reframing “our tone and our message.”
Johnson then sought to downplay the gravity of their comments, and errantly pushed an Islamophobic conspiracy theory — that a major movement among Muslims exists in the U.S. to replace the Constitution with Islamic religious law, known as Sharia.
“There’s a lot of energy in the country, and a lot of popular sentiment, that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem,” Johnson said.
Notably, the troubling comments from Republicans do not contain any references to Sharia law.
“We respect everyone’s beliefs and their right to live out their beliefs and to speak freely about their beliefs, and have that conviction,” Johnson went on. He then demanded that Muslims follow an undefined set of rules to “assimilate” to the U.S., again peddling false claims about Sharia law.
“When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate but to impose Sharia law … that is the conflict that people are talking about,” Johnson insisted. “It’s not about people as Muslims, it is about people who seek to impose a different belief system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution.”
Rather than being actual law, Sharia is a code of conduct and religious commandments that Muslims may personally follow. Such “laws” are also present within Christian and Jewish sects of faith.
Johnson’s anti-Muslim bigotry has also played a role in his support for President Donald Trump’s war on Iran. Earlier this month, the speaker said his defense of the war was motivated, in part, by the Iranian people’s “misguided religion.”
Several Democratic lawmakers in Congress have condemned the recent Islamophobic comments from Ogles and Fine.
“Disgusting Islamophobes like you do not belong in Congress or in civilized society,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said in response to Ogles’s comment.
Before Johnson indicated that he wouldn’t condemn Fine’s Islamophobic remarks, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Arizona) directly appealed to the speaker to take action.
“If anyone said something this vile in any workplace, they’d be fired. Speaker Johnson should reprimand him immediately,” Ansari said on social media. “And if Fine cannot meet the most basic standard of human dignity, he should resign.”
In a statement condemning the recent Islamophobic statements from Republicans in general, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that the Constitution “guarantees religious freedom to everyone in our nation, including American Muslims.”
Mitchell also noted Republicans’ hypocrisy in refusing to condemn Islamophobic statements while demanding that Democrats apologize for criticism of Israel.
“If any member of Congress had declared that ‘Jews do not belong in America,’ that politician would rightfully face condemnation and censure. Yet like Randy Fine and other anti-Muslim extremists in Congress, Mr. Ogles has faced no consequences for his dangerous rhetoric, even as American Muslim elected officials experience censure motions, threats and harassment for daring to criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” Mitchell said. “The double standards and hypocrisy must end.”
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