Congressman's Anti-Muslim Statement Divides Congress

Congressman faces backlash over anti-Muslim remark. A Republican congressman from Tennessee is facing widespread criticism after posting an inflammatory message about Muslims online. Representative Andy Ogles wrote on social media that, quote, Muslims don't belong in American society. He followed the statement with another post claiming pluralism is a lie. The remarks triggered immediate condemnation from Democrats and civil rights organizations. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the comment disgusting and said rhetoric like that has no place in Congress. Even one prominent Republican ally of President Trump, diplomat Richard Grenell, criticized the message and warned against attacks on the First Amendment. That's the one before the Second Amendment that says there will be no establishment of religion. In America. Ogles did not retract the statement and continued defending his position online. The controversy comes as anti-Muslim rhetoric has periodically surfaced in American politics since the September 11th attacks back in 2001. Advocacy groups note that roughly 3.5 million Muslims live in the United States, working as doctors, entrepreneurs, soldiers, and first responders across the the country. Okay, so in the past, most people, by the time they get elected to a high office, which the United States Congress is considered a pretty influential position, even if they think these things, they don't say it out loud. They don't write it publicly. They might tell their friends who belong to the same religion they do this, but it's a bit unusual to publicly write it and defend it and say to the whole world, yes, I'm a bigot. If you don't have a religious worldview exactly like mine, you're not an American. Now, that is the attitude of certain nations. There are certain nations that are theocracies. They are run by clerics. Iran, where that's the attitude. You better have the same religion as everyone else, or you better shut up or leave. And that's typically what we've been against. Arguably, that's why the United States was created, to get away from that sort of thuggish theocracy. It always strikes me as comical that the people who beat their chest aloud as talking about this as founded as a Christian nation seemingly know nothing about the founders of our nations. Most of our founders were not overtly Christian in any sense. Many of them were deists, and they had some general sense of maybe there was kind of a sort of a powerful being, we'll call him God, who kind of started things, but now it's all up to humans to run things. That's a pretty accurate assessment of how most, not all, most of our founding fathers, their vision of religion. And then, of course, there's my favorite, Thomas Paine, who thought that religion was essentially nonsense. He wrote an entire book on it, The Age of Reason, where he ripped apart line by line showing what he believed was the idiocy, illogic, and nonsense of the Christian Bible. One of our founders, we arguably would not have the United States of America if Thomas Paine had not written Common Sense, which ignited widespread appeal for the revolution. So There you have it. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called this member of Congress a malignant clown. That seems pretty accurate. Ogles previously urged deporting New York City Mayor Zoran Mondani. I'm sure this plays well in rural Tennessee. I guess the question I have is, and let me pose this question to you because I have friends who are Muslim and voted for the MAGA Republican Party, Donald Trump. My question to you is, how many members of a party are going to have to tell you, you don't belong here before you start voting against members of that party, especially at their highest rungs who are empowering? You know, I'm not a Muslim. I can say it doesn't affect me, but I'm still affected by it and offended by it because I actually happen to be A conservative who believes in the United States Constitution. I'm a sane, sensible centrist, and I believe in the rule of law, and I believe that the First Amendment, meaning there should be no establishment of religion or religious clauses or requirements for citizenship, I happen to believe that. So in that sense, I'm a conservative. When are you going to stand up to these theocrats? Because there's nothing American about it, and there's nothing conservative about it, and there's certainly nothing traditional about it.