Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee) wrote on social media Monday that “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” becoming the latest Republican lawmaker to voice blatantly Islamophobic sentiments.
“Pluralism is a lie,” Ogles added in his post on X.
It is unclear what exactly prompted the post, which came on the first day of the House Republicans’ annual policy retreat in Doral, Florida.
Ogles, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, recently said he planned to introduce a bill that would ban immigration from certain Muslim countries. Over the weekend, he declared on X that “Diversity is our weakness” and called for the deportation of even naturalized Muslim Americans. Ogles also railed against two men who are being investigated for bringing explosives to an anti-Islamic protest in New York, though his history of making anti-Muslim posts goes back long before that incident.
Representatives for Ogles and for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Several Democrats immediately criticized Ogles’s post as un-American. Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) called it “abhorrent,” and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) called on Republicans to denounce the Tennessee congressman.
“This disgusting sh– doesn’t belong in American society. And Republicans who support it don’t belong in Congress,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) wrote.
Ogles’s post is part of a larger trend of House Republicans leaning on Islamophobic rhetoric.
Last month, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) wrote — then doubled down on — a post in which he suggested he would choose dogs over Muslims. Despite several House Democrats calling for Fine to resign or be disciplined, he faced no consequences from Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the chamber.
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 100 GOP members of Congress have posted about Islam or Muslims, and almost all of those posts have been negative, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Two-thirds of those posts have mentioned radical Islam, sharia law, extremism or terrorism, while several have called for Muslims to be deported.
“No more Islamic immigration. Denaturalize, deport, repeat,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) wrotelast week, as one example.
Half a dozen sitting GOP Congress members have posted about the need to ban sharia law — more than the number of Republican lawmakers who posted positively last month about the start of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar.
Texas lawmakers have led the negative posts about Muslims and Islam this year: Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has made the most — 129 posts since January — including one in which he declared Texas “under assault” while defending the state’s designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, as a terrorist organization. Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are close behind Roy, with 51 and 47 negative posts about Muslims or Islam, respectively.
The posts have been similar in content and tone to those from far-right activists like Laura Loomer, who does not hold public office but who has the ear of high-profile political figures, including President Donald Trump. Loomer in recent days has ramped up her calls for all Muslims to be deported from America and attacked New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his Islamic faith.
“He’s celebrating the Islamic takeover of New York,” Loomer wrote Monday morning, referring to Mamdani celebrating the opening of a new mosque in the Bronx. “Why hasn’t he been denaturalized yet? He is a threat to US national security.”
Loomer praised Ogles for his post Monday, resharing it with a note that read: “Amen. More GOP reps need to start saying this.”
Ogles was first elected to the House in 2022 and is running for reelection to his third term to represent Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
He faces a primary challenge from former Tennessee agriculture commissioner Charlie Hatcher, a dairy farmer. At least five candidates have filed to run in the Democratic primary. Ogles handily won his 2024 reelection race in the solidly red district, with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
Scott Nover and Mariana Alfaro contributed to this report.
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