Something has been eating at me.
I have been debating in my head the last few weeks whether or not to give space to a couple of Congresswomen whose behavior I find despicable. But after contemplating the fact that I have unhesitatingly called out people who harm (or inspire others to harm) others they don’t like in my blog posts, I thought: oh, why the hell not?!
So here I mention two Congresswomen who I think make Congress look very bad (as if Congress needed any help in that regard), as well as their respective constituents: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA).
Let’s start with Rep. Boebert. Muslim Advocates reports:
Speaking to constituents over the Thanksgiving holiday, Boebert told a made-up story about being in a Capitol Hill elevator with Omar and telling an approaching Capitol police officer “Well, she [Omar] doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine.” At another event a few months prior, Boebert told a different version of the story where she called Rep. Omar part of a “Jihad Squad.” She also said that Omar and Tlaib were “black-hearted, evil women.” Boebert subsequently used a phone call with Omar not to apologize publicly but to double down on her hate and call Omar “anti-American” and a “terrorist sympathizer.”
Just reading that makes my tummy turn in disgust.
A September Staten Island Conservative Party dinner event video was uncovered on Tuesday, November 30th by CNN’s Kfile and was shared at the time on Facebook but didn’t make national news. Boebert said,
“One of my I staffers, on his first day with me, got into an elevator in the Capitol. And in that elevator, we were joined by Ilhan Omar,” Boebert said in September. “It was just us three in there and I looked over and I said, well, lookey there, it’s the Jihad Squad. She doesn’t have a backpack, she wasn’t dropping it and running so we’re good.”
She apparently thinks she’s funny?
What kind of person would laugh at that?
As a result of her videos, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) – one of the first two Muslim women in Congress along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), received a profanity-laden voicemail with racial epithets which she played during a news conference and which she said was among hundreds of such messages she has reported since joining Congress.
In the grainy recording, an unidentified man can be heard saying:
We see you, Muslim sand n***** bitch. We know what you’re up to. You’re all about taking over our country. Don’t worry, there’s plenty that will love the opportunity to take you off the face of this fucking earth. Come get it, you fucking Muslim piece of shit. You jihadist. We know what you are. You’re a fucking traitor. You will not live much longer, bitch, I can almost guarantee you that. We the people are rising up, and you will be tried before a military tribunal, and you will be found guilty.
Boebert initially took steps to ease the situation, according to multiple news sources, apologizing “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended”. But after declining to apologize directly to Omar during a tense phone call on Monday, November 29, which Omar abruptly ended, Boebert again went on the attack. Rep. Omar said the voicemail was left for her after Boebert released another video criticising her.
To my mind, Rep. Boebert is behaving worse than a severely immature teenager. Can you imagine being in school or work and having a bully make sick jokes to anyone who will listen that you are a terrorist?
Who’s the black-hearted woman here?!
In the letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics, Muslim Advocates and Bend the Arc note that not only do Boebert’s anti-Muslim attacks sully the reputation of the House of Representatives, they also invite additional hate and threats against the Muslim members of Congress, their staff and all religious minorities.
“We are deeply disturbed by Rep. Boebert’s abhorrent rhetoric. The death threat [voicemail] shared by Rep. Omar illustrates the danger we face when those in positions of power shamelessly spread politically-charged lies and hate-filled messages,” said Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, Washington Director of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. “We stand in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors, and all targeted communities in denouncing hate speech and calling on our leaders to hold Rep. Boebert accountable.”
She’s not the only one who needs to be held accountable. How about Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), a.k.a. MTG?
After her fellow GOP Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado shared the fake story with constituents about getting into an elevator with Omar at the Capitol —comparing the Muslim congresswoman to a suicide bomber which resulted in strong backlash and after Boebert issued an apology to the Muslim community (but not to Rep. Omar personally), MTG posted an Islamophobic tweet attacking Representative Ilhan Omar, saying people should “never apologize” to her and the group of progressive lawmakers Greene has dubbed the “Jihad Squad.”
“Democrats want us censored, shut down, and imprisoned. Never apologize to Islamic terrorist sympathizers, communists, or those who fund murder with our tax dollars,” the far-right congresswoman wrote on Twitter.
“@IlhanMN and the Jihad Squad are all three and are undeserving of an apology.”
I take issue with people who refuse to apologize when they have attacked – intentionally or not, another person or group of people because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs (or none at all), or socio-economic background.
What does MTG care that her fellow Congresswoman has gotten death threats ever since she became a Congresswoman and more recently as a result of Rep. Boebert’s elevator “joke”?
This is a person who repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry — and FBI agents in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress, as CNN’s KFile previously reported.
This is someone who also:
• Endorsed 9/11 trutherism conspiracies and falsely claimed there was no evidence a plane crashed into the Pentagon, according to reporting from Media Matters.
• In 2018, questioned whether the Parkland shooting that killed 17 people was a planned event and called Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg a “paid actor.” In a recently surfaced video from March 2019, Greene follows Hogg as he walks toward the U.S. Capitol and can be heard making false and baseless claims as she asks him a series of questions related to gun rights and how he was able to meet with senators.
• On and offline, frequently engaged with extreme anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Some of the targets of her comments included her future colleagues in the House of Representatives, like Tlaib and Omar, and President Barack Obama, who Greene falsely said is Muslim.
And to add to her illustrious infamy, the representative from Georgia on December 20th used her time in the limelight at the Turning Point USA’s “AmericaFest” rally to call out the diversity of the attendees, only to highlight that the event can’t possibly be racist:
“So I’ve never been to one of these events before. And when I walked in yesterday, I was like, ‘What kind of people come here?'” she continued. “So I’m walking around and seeing some good people and I see white people, Black people, brown people, yellow people…
“And then there’s talk of freedom and loving America and conservative principles, some crazy people in here were talking about how much they love this guy named Jesus. And I heard—someone I really like—I think I heard that a lot of people here like a guy named Donald J. Trump.
“And then I said ‘Oh, oh, I know exactly what this is. The Left calls this a white supremacist party,’ Okay, okay, I know what I’m going to now.”
You get the picture.
(Yellow people? C’mon, MTG. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century. The term “yellow people” stems from “yellow peril,” a racist ideology dating back to the 19th century used to misrepresent people from Asia, painting them as a group to be feared and reduced to something less than white Europeans.)
She spoke of “talk of Freedom and loving America”…I wonder if MTG knows that service by Muslims in the United States military dates back to the American Revolutionary War, where records indicate that there were some Muslims who fought on the revolutionary side? Or that Muslims have fought in all major United States conflicts, including the War of 1812, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War? More recently, they have served in the Gulf War, Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan.
Those Muslim veterans helped fight for our freedoms – including the freedom of Reps. Boebert and Greene to be insufferable assholes toward their fellow Muslim members of Congress, Muslims in America, and every American who finds Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and racism UN-American and unacceptable.
Rep. MTG apparently doesn’t agree with her fellow Republican Congresswoman Boebert in issuing a public apology to Muslims and holds the dubious distinction of supporting violence against those she disagrees with or simply doesn’t like. She has a long record of conspiracy theory-laden remarks as well as disparaging remarks about people who don’t look like her or share her beliefs.
Yes, this is a person who relies heavily on social media for her news. In a statement, she did not deny that she liked posts and replied to comments but claimed that many people have run her Facebook page.
“Over the years, I’ve had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views. …”
Rep. MTG, you just let other people say anything on your behalf, is that right?
Geez!
Ok, so enough of the dastardly deeds of these two Congresswomen. I had to unload this weight off of my mind that is their stinking, despicable Islamophobia – rooted in these Congresswomen’s own ignorance – which has appealed to like-minded people’s fears and which has inspired violence toward their fellow Americans who happen to have a different religion than theirs.
These two Congresswomen seem to carry their Islamophobia like a badge of honor. Worse, they don’t give a flying fig that their sentiments have consequences – of inspiring like-minded people to make threats of physical violence, death, or violent verbal harrassment toward Muslim members of Congress.
It’s too bad that that sort of behavior isn’t condemned by the entirety of Congress. Calls to remove them from committees are just a slap on the wrist.
Hey, Congress? Take a lesson in growing a spine from the more than 350 students from Fairfax High School in Virginia: they walked out in protest on Dec. 16 to show their solidarity with a student who was allegedly attacked in an Islamophobic incident.
According to a Change.org petition, a Black Muslim student, identified as Ekran Mohammad, was allegedly harassed by a group of boys, who threw her onto a desk and removed her hijab on Tuesday, December 14, 2021.
.
The Daily Kos reported that
…both the attackers and the victim were reported to have received equal punishment and made to have in-school suspension in the same room, students told NBC News. After expressing that she felt unseen, the victim’s classmates not only came together but marched in protest for her.
“If we don’t feel safe in our environment, in our school, then something has to be done,” Mohammad said.
One student told NBC News that she and her friends were working on a project when a group of students began to harass them. They were “making these Islamophobic jokes, talking about Jewish people and Nazis, creating the Islamic symbol and putting an X across it,” a student identified as Eliza Gill said.
That’s when Mohammad confronted one of the boys and reportedly “lightly shoved him away,” to which he reacted violently. “[He] threw me across the room. I hit my left side on the desk, and my chest hit the chair,” Mohammad said. He allegedly then removed her hijab.
Unfortunately, not only was Mohammad’s experience allegedly not taken seriously, but suspending her in the same room as her attackers raised questions by students and others alike. Following the incident, Mohammad allegedly spent the evening in the emergency room during which medical reports show contusions and bruises. This evidence was given to the police, WTOP reported.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing, according to a press release issued by the city’s police department. The police department also noted that it was not notified by the school regarding the assault but instead heard about it due to the student rally.
The school officials did not take responsibility in dealing with the incident, much in the same spirit that Congress remains deaf toward Reps. Boebert and Greene in their attacks against their Muslim Congresswomen. You could argue: well, you’re comparing apples and oranges here – Congresswomen and high school students!
Really, are the Congresswomen behaving any better than the students who attacked Ekran Mohammad? Reps. Boebert and MTG are supposed to be adults and represent their constituents. They have greater responsibilities. But they’re spewing Islamophobic rhetoric whenever it’s most convenient with no care that their words may have deadly consequences.
“There’s multiple witnesses who can attest to racist and Islamophobic comments and overtures being made immediately prior to the incident into the assault,” said Abed Ayoub, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which represents the 16-year-old student.
“It’s the students that brought attention to this, and we need to remember that,” Ayoub said. “We need to empower them and realize the important role they played in standing up for one of their own.”
Hear, hear!
Those 350+ Fairfax High School students in Virginia who walked out in protest to show their solidarity for their fellow student have demonstrated they have far more backbone than much of Congress has toward their fellow members of Congress who are Muslim.
Thank goodness those students are part of our future.
Sources
Muslim Advocates
Yahoo
Newsweek – Marjorie Taylor Greene Attacks Ilhan Omar, ‘Jihad Squad’ After Boebert Apology
HuffPost
The Guardian
Rolling Stone
World Socialist Web Site
CNN
Daily Kos – Rep. Greene uses racist term for Asian Americans while trying to prove conservatives aren’t racist
Wikipedia – Color Terminology for Race
Newsweek – Marjorie Taylor Greene Refers to ‘Yellow People’ in Speech on GOP Diversity
Wikipedia
Daily Kos – Hundreds of Virginia high school students protest after Muslim girl is allegedly attacked at school
WDVM