Washington, Dec. 15 (BNA): When Republican Representative Lauren Boubert made a racist anti-Islam joke about Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, it was not the first time she had mocked the Muslim MP.
Pooper mocked Omar during a House debate last month, deriding the Somali-born Muslim-American immigrant as a member of the “jihad squad” of liberal lawmakers, The Associated Press reports.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday took its first formal step in response, with a 219-212 vote on a party line to approve legislation sponsored by Omar that would create a new special envoy position at the State Department to monitor and combat Islamophobia around the world.
In introducing the discussion, Representative James McGovern, the Democratic chair of the House Rules Committee, cited surveys showing a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment across the country and around the world — and the need for an active American response.
McGovern said the House arrived at this moment because his colleague “told a completely fabricated story over and over again suggesting that a fellow Muslim is a terrorist…just because they’re Muslims.”
These actions are “a disgrace to this entire institution,” he said, without naming Poiper, the new Representative from Colorado. “This house is better than the worst behavior of the few here.”
The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate. Republican leaders are unwilling or unable to publicly blame their leaders, especially those allied with Trump, even when their daily rhetoric borders on racist hate speech.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Tuesday’s vote would not be the last word for Democratic leaders about Poubert’s behavior.
However, they have repeatedly said that it is up to the Republican leadership to stand up to its more outspoken members who push the boundaries. Democrats have so far refrained from taking further punitive action to blame Boebert or cancel her commission assignments, the way they have done with other lawmakers, and as some Democrats wanted.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, did not indicate any further steps.
McCarthy of California said he helped engineer a phone call between Poubert and Omar, days after scrutinizing Republican statements.
And before the call, he said Poubert had apologized.
But her apology – “to anyone I offended in the Muslim community” – fell short of some lawmakers.
Rather than calming tensions, the call between Poibert and Omar abruptly ended. Bubert refused Omar’s request for a public apology, and said that Omar had closed off contact with her. Omar said in a statement that she ended a useless call.
Boebert launched the firestorm around Thanksgiving after posting a video to Facebook that showed her telling voters about an interaction with Omar in a home elevator.
Poppert said as she got on the elevator that she spotted Omar. “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack,” Boubert remembers saying, an apparent reference to a suicide bombing. “We should be fine.”
Omar, who is one of the few Muslims in Congress and the only representative who regularly wears the religious headscarf, said the scene never happened.
This wasn’t the first time that Poebert, a conservative newcomer, had tested the rules of civility.
Last month, Bob mocked Omar as a member of the “jihad squad” during the House debate to criticize another Republican, Representative Paul Gosar, a Republican from Ariz. He was reprimanded for posting on Twitter an animated video depicting the murder of another member of the so-called “squad” of liberal lawmakers, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DNY.
Gosar, shortly after the censure vote, reposted the offensive video on his Twitter account.
Omar, who arrived in the United States as a child and now serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke during Tuesday’s debate on the bill, saying that as a nation founded on religious freedom, the United States must fight religious persecution of Muslims and others around the world. .
“We must lead the global effort,” she said. “As Americans, we must stand united against all forms of bigotry.”
Republican opponents said the bill was passed too quickly, failed to fully define “Islamophobia” and should not provide special protections for Muslims separated from other religious groups.
One Republican, Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, brought up earlier statements by Omar that he said were anti-Semitic and supportive of terrorism.
Shortly after taking office in 2019, Omar, who is critical of Israel, wrote on Twitter that some lawmakers only support the Jewish state in order to raise money – a comment widely seen as slanderous. At the time, she apologized “unequivocally”. Berry also referred to Omar’s statements about the September 11, 2001 attacks, which were considered dismissive but circulated out of context.
Democrats moved to remove Perry’s comments from the record because they violated House rules.
Boebert did not speak during the discussion.
Representative Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, co-sponsor of the anti-Islamophobia bill, said of Omar: “She has been subjected to relentless attacks and horrific threats not only from her fellow Americans, but even inside the halls of Congress. And enough is enough.”