WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans have increasingly expressed anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Iran war, with several far-right lawmakers posting Islamophobic statements on social media this week, following recent violent attacks on U.S. soil.
The social media posts have fueled bitter tensions inside Congress, with enraged Democrats vowing disciplinary action against their Republican colleagues while GOP leaders largely shrug aside the inflammatory rhetoric.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who had already faced backlash for an anti-Muslim post last month, wrote on X Thursday: “We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational.”
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said in a series of posts on Thursday that no country is “freer and safer because Muslims moved there,” and he called “immigration” a “national security threat.” Earlier this week, he wrote that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”
Also on Thursday, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, called for “No more Muslims immigrating to America."
And Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., shared a post featuring a side-by-side photo of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim.
“The enemy is inside the gates," wrote Tuberville, who is running for governor of Alabama and has been posting the same line in reference to Mamdani and at least one other American Muslim politician on X since well before the war with Iran began.
The latest anti-Muslim statements come in the wake of the Trump administration's war with Iran and multiple recent violent attacks in the U.S., including a car-ramming attack on a Detroit-area synagogue and a deadly shooting at a Virginia college on Wednesday.
The Virginia gunman was previously convicted of supporting ISIS, according to court documents, and the incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah, an ROTC instructor, was killed in the attack, Gov. Abigail Spanberger said. The synagogue attack is being investigated as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community, and the Department of Homeland Security said the driver was a U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the improvised explosive devices thrown near Mamdani’s New York City residence during dueling protests last weekend are being investigated as part of an act of “ISIS-inspired" terrorism, according to the city’s police commissioner.
President Donald Trump has blamed the recent attacks on the “genetics” of the suspects.
“They’re sick people, and a lot of them were let in here. They shouldn’t have been let in. Others are just bad. They go bad. Something wrong. There’s something wrong there. The genetics are not exactly— they’re not exactly your genetic," Trump said in an interview with Brian Kilmeade that aired Friday on Fox Radio.
At a Tuesday news conference during the House GOP’s retreat in Florida, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was asked about the anti-Muslim rhetoric from some of his members, including Fine and Ogles.
Johnson said he has “spoken to those members and all members, as I always do, about our tone and our message.”
He said 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 added that it was “different language than I would use. But I think ... that’s a serious issue.”
Sharia law stems from the Quran and the sayings of Muhammad; it has no standing over the Constitution or state or federal laws in the U.S. When a reporter followed up and asked Johnson who was imposing Sharia law in America, he did not answer and walked off the stage.
Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment Friday on the latest anti-Muslim social media posts from his party members following Thursday's attacks.
