In a vitriolic X rant, GOP Rep. Andy Ogles from Tennessee attacked Muslim Americans. This is yet another Islamophobic attack by a sitting member of Congress in the past month.
Ogles wrote on X, “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.” This would be the first of his anti-Muslim rants. Many Democrats took issue with the statement, demanding that Ogles be censured.
Ogles receives backlash on X
Sen. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland wrote in response, “There is a growing sickness in the Republican Party that spawns this virulent hatred. Replace ‘Muslims’ with any other faith, & this man would be run out of Congress. Their tolerance for this bigotry is a cancer in their ranks. Hate, in all its forms, should find no refuge here.”
Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark remarked, “This disgusting sh*t doesn’t belong in American society. And Republicans who support it don’t belong in Congress.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin said on X, “Racism and religious bigotry are the lie—not pluralism—and Andy Ogles doesn’t know the American Constitution, which guarantees Free Exercise of Religion, no Establishment of Religion, Equal Protection and no religious tests for public office.”
Raskin pointed out that Speaker Mike Johnson, who prides himself as an advocate of religious freedom, is damningly silent about the matter.
Rep. Eric Swalwell from California defended the Muslims in his district. He responded, “I don’t know how many Muslims are in this guy’s district. I know there are tens of thousands in mine. They are parents. Entrepreneurs. Police officers. The firefighter-paramedic giving CPR to save your life.”
He adds, “This tweet is NOT American.”
Jemele Hill from The Atlantic quipped, “Y’all Klan?” in response to Ogles’ bigoted tweet.
Meanwhile, commentator Mehdi Hasan argued that if the tweet were about Jews instead of Muslims, Ogles would have his career ended.
Racism is back in vogue
And yet despite the widespread condemnation, Ogles only doubled down. He would write as a follow-up, “My comments wouldn’t even be a news story if I had said this about Christians. Please spare me your moral outrage. Cry harder. Christ is King.”
Is it normal for Americans to fantasize about the mass expulsion of Christians like Ogles? Not at all, and the media coverage and outrage would have been the same if a congressional Democrat had said anything of equal bigotry to other religious groups.
The concern about this brazenness coming from a sitting United States politician is that racism has come back in full swing. Gone are the dog whistles, or the coded language that only hinted at deep-seated hatred for non-white, non-Christian groups. Now, a congress member can disregard the First Amendment, hurl discriminatory language against a religious minority group, and presumably suffer no political consequence for his actions.
Last week, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace also came after two prominent Muslim members of Congress. Like Ogles, she too went on a ramble of racist stereotypes—and she was not reprimanded for her egregious speech.
Technically, Congress can move to censure comments from Ogles and Mace to show that they disapprove of these representatives’ conduct. They had already done it to Rashida Tlaib in 2023 for her pro-Palestinian activism. Hopefully, the line isn’t drawn when religious minorities are on the receiving end of reprehensible comments.
The First Amendment clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is against the principles of America to curtail the religious freedom of others, making Ogles’ point irrelevant in the face of the Constitution. But there is unironically nothing more un-American than using religion as a litmus test for patriotism.
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