Washington– Anti-Muslim rhetoric from some Republicans in Congress intensified this week against the backdrop of the Iran war, with several lawmakers — including one who said “Muslims do not belong in American society” — drawing condemnation from Democrats for their remarks but facing little opposition from GOP leaders.
The insulting language has been circulating among Republican officials for months. Often prominent When he criticized New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani, who is Muslim. but On the background After the war in Iran, a country with a Muslim majority, and the attacks on a synagogue in Michigan and a college in Virginia, the tone has intensified this week.
“The enemy is within our doors,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama wrote Thursday in response to a photo of Mamdani sitting on the floor during a breakfast at New York City Hall. The photo was juxtaposed with a photo of the September 11 attacks.
Hours later, Tuberville asserted: “To be clear, I did not suggest that Islamists are the enemy. I said that clearly.”
The rhetoric intensified Friday as GOP lawmakers responded to the attacks Michigan and Virginia By urging a halt to all forms of immigration to the United States. Some specifically singled out Muslims.
For many Muslims, it is a political moment that carries echoes of the early 2000s, when the September 11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq generated hostility toward Muslim communities in the United States, which was often accompanied by discrimination and racist violence.
“When members of Congress speak, it’s not just words,” said Iman Awad, national director of policy and advocacy for the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage Action. “It shapes public perception. It legitimizes bias.”
In his social media post, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles categorically stated that Muslims do not belong in the United States. He stood behind it after criticism mounted, later writing that “papers don’t magically make you an American” and that “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.”
Asked about Ogles’ post on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he spoke to members “about our tone, our message, and what we’re saying.” He said Ogles used “different language than I would have used”, but added that he believed the issue raised by the comments was “serious”.
“There is a lot of energy in the country, and a lot of popular sentiment, that the demand to impose Islamic law in America is a serious problem,” Johnson said. “That’s what’s so refreshing.”
Sharia is a religious framework that guides the moral and spiritual behavior of many Muslims. Officials often cite references to “Islamic law” to suggest that Muslims are trying to impose religious practices on communities in the United States.
a lot Republicans point out to a Muslim-focused planned community near Dallas as evidence of “Islamic law” — although developers have denied the allegations and said they were targeted because they are Muslim.
With Johnson not condemning Ogles’ comments — or recent comments by Florida Rep. Randy Fine that “it’s not that hard to choose between dogs and Muslims” — anti-Muslim rhetoric has intensified. After the photo of Al-Mamdani at the Iftar dinner spread, a number of Republicans responded with critical posts.
Democrats widely condemned the GOP’s messaging. Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader, called Tuberville’s post “reckless hate.”
“Such anti-Islamic hatred is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it when it rears its ugly head,” Schumer said.
Mamdani — in response to Tuberville’s post that “the enemy is within our doors” — said: “Let there be as much anger at politicians in Washington when children go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.”
Federal officials have identified the man who crashed his car into a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, this week as a naturalized citizen born in Lebanon. Officials said The man lost four members of his family in an Israeli air strike on his native Lebanon last week, just after sunset while they were eating breakfast during the holy month of Ramadan.
In Virginia, Muhammad Bilur Jalloh opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University before ROTC cadets were able to subdue and kill him. Court documents showed that he had previously served a sentence for trying to help ISIS, and was released less than two years ago.
Some Republican lawmakers claimed to have justified their views. Others pushed for legislation. “Our nation’s security depends on our ability to strip terrorists of their citizenship and deport them,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chairman of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives.
West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore said he would introduce a bill to revoke the citizenship and deport any naturalized citizen who “commits an act of terrorism, plans to commit an act of terrorism, joins a terrorist organization, or aids and abets terrorism against the American people.”
Similar political discourses and trends have appeared before and sparked controversy. Last year, demonstrators linked to demonstrations over the war between Israel and Hamas were arrested and targeted by authorities, including a former graduate student at Columbia University. Mahmoud Khalila Palestinian activist whom the government sought to arrest and deport.
Conflicts in the Middle East leading to internal tensions are nothing new. With the war in Gaza, Muslim and Muslim communities alike faced discrimination based on religion Attacks.
Mamdani said posts invoking the September 11 attacks are problematic not just because of the words, but because of “the actions that often accompany them.”
“I also think about the smaller indignities, the indignities that many New Yorkers face, but Muslims are expected to face in silence,” Mamdani said. “From the exhaustion of having to explain yourself to those who don’t care to understand. From men who introduce themselves by their given names only to be called Muhammad for years on end.”
The stark silence from Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, reflects a broader change in the party. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Republican President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., to explicitly warn against discrimination among Muslims.
Bush said during the visit: “America includes millions of Muslims among our citizens, and Muslims make a very valuable contribution to our country,” adding: “They need to be treated with respect. And in our anger and emotions, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”
Bush said: “Those who feel they can intimidate our citizens into taking out their anger do not represent the best of America. Rather, they represent the worst of humanity, and they should be ashamed of this type of behavior.”