Civil rights group calls on Speaker McCarthy to drop threat to remove Rep. Omar from her committee assignments
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 1/18/23) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called the announced return of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to U.S. House Committee assignments “absolute hypocrisy” in light of House Speaker McCarthy’s threat to baselessly remove Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and others from their committee assignments.
Yesterday, the House Republican Steering Committee, which assigns congressional committee assignments, unanimously approved the installation of Reps. Greene and Gosar to the Oversight and Accountability Committee, in addition to placing Greene on the Homeland Security Committee, and Gosar back to the Natural Resources Committee.
SEE: CNN: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar get committee assignments
CAIR is publicly calling out the House GOP Steering Committee’s “double standard” in moving to reinstate the committee assignments of proven anti-Muslim and antisemitic conspiracy theorist like Rep. Greene in the wake of Speaker McCarthy threatening to remove Rep. Omar from her committee assignment based on bad-faith attacks against her character.
In a statement CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert S. McCaw said:
“It is absolute insanity and hypocrisy to reinstate the committee assignments of open bigots like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar while baselessly threatening to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar and others from their committee assignments. Racism and Islamophobia would be the only explanation for this hypocritical double-standard.
“Reps. Greene and Gosar have consistently exhibited extreme anti-Muslim, racist and anti-immigrant views throughout their time in Congress, with Greene promoting wild antisemitic conspiracy theories and declaring that Muslims have no place in elected office.
“Refusing to hold Reps. Greene or Gosar accountable for their extreme bigotry while launching bad-faith attacks on one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress is the definition of hypocrisy. We call on Republicans of good faith to reject any push to remove Rep. Omar or others from their committee assignments.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s History of Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Racism
In March 2022, CAIR called on Republican congressional leaders – including Kevin McCarthy – to strongly condemn Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her repeated anti-Muslim, racist and antisemitic statements, and targeted attacks on Muslim members of Congress Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). CAIR also called on McCarthy to reverse his pledge to put Greene back on committees should Republicans win control of the U.S. House.
In February 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to censure and remove Greene from her committee assignments due to her many extreme, bigoted, and threatening statements.
Greene had attended an event organized by a white nationalist at which attendees cheered Vladimir Putin and praised Adolf Hitler.
CAIR’s Islamophobia.org profile states in part:
“MTG’s Islamophobia well predates her time in Congress. MTG suggested that Muslims do not belong in the U.S. government and has indulged in and promoted widely debunked conspiracy theories.”
READ: CAIR’S ISLAMOPHOBIA PROFILE ON REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE
Paul Gosar’s History of Islamophobia, Racism
In 2020, CAIR called of the expulsion of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from Congress after he called for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque (Masjid Al-Aqsa) in Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first prayer direction of early Muslims and remains one of holiest sites in Islam.
In November 2021, the House Democrats voted to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments for posting a video on Twitter showing him attacking President Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Gosar remains a controversial figure who has previously met with White nationalist and Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, touted baseless election conspiracy theories and claimed Jan. 6 insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt is a martyr who was “executed” by a police officer.
In a statement objecting to a United Nations resolution that used the Arabic name of the compound housing the mosque, “Haram al-Sharif,” Gosar said: “It remains an abomination that a mosque was allowed to be built over this temple. The United Nations should be finding ways to dismantle and move that mosque, which is an affront to all religions.”
SEE: Gosar Objects to U.N. Effort to Remake Jewish Temple an Islamic Site
BACKGROUND ON IN-BAD-FAITH ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIM MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
CAIR has observed that American Muslims elected to Congress, starting with former Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), to current Representatives Andre Carson, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, have all had to endure a litany of in-bad-faith attacks against their character because of their Muslim identities, ethnicities, or gender, and because they dare to oppose the human rights violations that our government and other actors have committed in the Middle East and around the world.
Democratic and Republican political opponents of Rep. Omar have over the past several years sought to remove her from her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee because she has used that position to challenge establishment views in that committee – especially when making commonsense observations that supporting Israel’s discriminatory and apartheid government is incompatible with democratic values here at home.
CAIR notes that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, have all recently recognized that the Israeli government’s decades-long human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, including physical segregation and different laws based on race, constitute a system of apartheid.
Often the statements of American Muslim members of Congress are purposefully misinterpreted and misconstrued when they speak about human rights abuses committed by Israel. CAIR believes that it would be wrong to remove Rep. Omar from her assignment on the House Foreign Affairs Committee – or any other member of Congress from their committee assignments, including American Muslim members of Congress – for speaking such uncomfortable truths.
Congresswoman Omar is best known for several firsts. Rep. Omar is the first Somali American and the first naturalized citizen of African birth to serve in the U.S. Congress, and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota. She is also the first woman to wear a hijab on the House floor after successfully advocating for a change to the House rules that denied her religious freedom to wear a head covering.
CAIR will oppose any attempt in the 118th Congress to remove Rep. Omar from any of her committee assignments based on bad-faith attacks.
CAIR continues to support the overall process of censuring and removing members of Congress from their committee assignments – like Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and former Congressman Steve King (R-IA) – for statements, attacks, threats, or other actions that promote racism and other forms of bigotry like white supremacy, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-black racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. A member of Congress that holds such bigoted views cannot truly represent the interests of their constituents in a plural and diverse representative democracy like the United States.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com CAIR National Communications Coordinator Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com