WASHINGTON: ‌Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who ​said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the ‌Republican US ‌lawmaker from Florida as an ​anti-Muslim ‌extremist ⁠last ​year.
“If they ⁠force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some ⁠high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom ‌called for him ‌to resign while House ​of Representatives Minority Leader ‌Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and ‌unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to ‌accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments ⁠include ⁠calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as ​well as the ​fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.