Far Right Lawmakers Push Cancer Of Hatred, Bigotry Against Muslims
Just like Hitler said he would save Germany by ridding the nation of the Jews, the U.S. government’s most far right legislators are trying to bring back ex-president trump’s notorious Muslim ban.
The ban is being hyped as a tool to fight terrorism by closing the door on immigration to the U.S. for any people with Palestinian roots. Instead, the plan is nothing more than thinly veiled racism and xenophobia.
A bill calling for a ban on Palestinians from entering the country and expelling those already in the U.S. was introduced in the House last week by members of the far right, Freedom Caucus. The move came after former President trump said that if he is re-elected, he will re-impose a ban on all Muslims traveling to the U.S. That ban was ended by President Biden on Jan. 20, 2021.
Such calls for restricting immigration are nothing less than xenophobic, bigoted, hate-mongering, immoral, political pandering. But they are worse. Far from protecting Americans from terrorism, the plan would harm innocent people, further inflame right wing vilification of Muslims in the U.S. and fuel anger directed at the U.S. by Palestinians and Muslims around the world.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont. His bill does not differentiate between Hamas, which attacked Israel and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, and Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based, and elsewhere including the U.S.
Zinke’s knee-jerk political reaction comes as Israel continues its war against Hamas, in response to Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel. Around 1,400 Israelis and foreigners have been killed and at least 5,132 were wounded. Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 7,700 people, including 3,000 children and 19,000 injured. In the West Bank, related violence during the conflict killed almost 100 Palestinians and wounded at least 300.
The United States is home to about 85,000 people of Palestinian descent, according to a 2013 U.S. Census figure.
Last seek, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Israel-Hamas conflict could inspire more violence in the U.S., citing threats against Jews and the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in Illinois last month.
“On top of the homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremist threat, we also cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here on our own soil,” Wray said.
The bill with the misleading title of the Safeguarding Americans from Extremism (SAFE) Act, was introduced by Zinke, a strong supporter of trump. Zinke was trump’s Secretary of the Interior before he resigned under a cloud of corruption. He was elected last year to the House.
“This legislation keeps America safe. I don’t trust the Biden Administration any more than I do the Palestinian Authority to screen who is allowed to come into the United States,” Zinke said in a statement. “This is the most anti-Hamas immigration legislation I have seen and it’s well deserved. Given the circumstances, the threats to our immigration system and the history of terrorists abusing refugee, asylum and visa processes all over the world, the requirements in this bill are necessary to keep Americans safe. This bill does exactly that.”
The statement said the proposed bill would “prevent Palestinian terrorists from abusing the United States’ legal immigration system” by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to implement a pause on all visas, refugee status and granting of asylum for individuals holding a passport issued by the Palestinian Authority. The bill also bars any entrance of aliens who were granted visas or entered the United States on or after Oct. 1, 2023.
The bill is co-sponsored by Zinke’s fellow members of the far right Freedom Caucus, including Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
Last week, Greene unsuccessfully called for a censure resolution against Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the sole Palestinian American serving in Congress. Greene had claimed that Tlaib is “a terrorist” who led an anti-Israel “insurrection” in a House office building last month.
The press release from Zinke included references to several planned or actual terrorist attacks by Syrians in the U.S. and abroad, but none were by Palestinians.
One quoted an Aug. 27 story in the Daily Mail about a Syrian who killed one police officer and wounded another in Fargo, N.D., and later was shot dead on July 14. The newspaper quoted North Dakota Attorney General Andrew Wrigley who said the shooter, Mohamad Barakat “could have slaughtered HUNDREDS if cop-killing Syrian gunman’s mass-shooting hadn’t been foiled by North Dakota police who killed him.”
Barakat, 37, traveled from Syria to the U.S. in 2012 seeking political asylum. He became a naturalized citizen in 2019. The Syrian refugee crisis began in 2011, and left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.
Authorities described Barakat as a “loner” with no obvious motive for the attack. He went to a Downtown Fargo Street Fair attended by thousands, armed with three assault style rifles, two hand grenades, and 1,800 rounds.
He first fatally shot Officer Jake Wallin, 23, who was responding to an unrelated traffic accident. Another officer and a civilian were wounded before Barakat was taken down by Officer Zach Robinson.
Wrigley said authorities have found no discernible incentive for the attack.
“We have gone through and evaluated his phones, his computer at his residence, and to this point, detected nothing that could begin to build the foundations of what would be a motive,’ Wrigley said. “We really detected no religious, political or other type of motivation for planning and carrying out such a heinous crime — and nothing about the victims he selected that day.”
Wrigley said Barakat was a Muslim and that a Quran was found in his apartment, but that authorities have not established any ties between him and the local Muslim community
Wrigley said Barakat had been on the FBI’s radar, after a 2021, anonymous tip that Barakt had been heard “talking angrily” and owned several weapons. Barakat said police officers visited Barakat’s home three times in 2021 and found he owned the weapons legally.
Wrigley said it was unclear if Barakat had family in the U.S. The prosecutor said Barakat’s only prior infraction was a speeding ticket.
The gun Barakat used was equipped with a binary trigger which allows shooters to fire off one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released, effectively doubling a weapon’s firing capacity.
Binary triggers are legal in most states and can be purchased on-line. They are illegal in North Dakota, California, Washington, D.C., Iowa, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Florida and Connecticut. They can be purchased legally in Delaware but only for hand guns. The palmetto State Armory in Columbia, S.C., sells binary triggers for as low as $386.99.
Another attack cited in Zinke’s press release referred to the arrest of a Syrian refugee who planned to bomb a Christian church in Pittsburgh. Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Alowemer also was not Palestinian and told authorities that he planned the attack to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States to join to commit similar acts.
Another incident cited was the arrest on June 10 of a homeless Syrian man in his 30s who was charged with attempted murder and detained in France in connection with a violent stabbing attack that injured two adults and four young children. The public prosecutor said no motive for the violent rampage was determined but there was no indication that the attack was an act of terrorism. At the time of his arrest, the suspect was wearing a cross necklace and carrying other Christian symbols.
The Palestinian people are an Arab ethno-nationalist group living mostly in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel, Jordan and parts of southern Lebanon and Syria. Significant Palestinian communities also are in Saudi Arabia and the United States.
There are roughly 14.5 million Palestinians in the world, according to a 2023 estimate from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Most are Sunni Muslims, though a significant minority is Christian. More than 5 million live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and another 2 million in Israel.
The largest community outside the Middle East is in Chile, home to 500,000 Palestinians. Other countries with sizeable Palestinian populations include Jordan, 2,700,000; Israel, 1,318,000; Syria, 434,896; Lebanon, 405,425; Saudi Arabia, 327,000; Egypt, 44,200; Kuwait, 40,000; other Gulf states, 159,000; other Arab states, 153,000; and other countries, 308,000.
In 2016, trump had campaigned on the extremist promise of providing national security with “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Soon after taking office, he issued an executive order temporarily banning entry and freezing refugee applications from seven Muslim-majority countries.
After a series of challenges in lower courts, trump’s executive order was found to be discriminatory. But it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018 after trump reissued his proclamations, adding a handful of countries that were not Muslim-majority. By the end of the trump presidency, citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Tanzania and North Korea were all subject to broad bans on obtaining U.S. visas.
The Brennan Center for Justice reported that overall, at least 42,650 people — including students, parents, siblings, tourists, children, and businesspeople — have been barred from the United States because of their country of origin, “rather than any warning signs in their files.”
Last week, trump spoke at the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“You remember the travel ban?” he said. “On day one, I will restore our travel ban. We had a travel ban because we didn’t want people coming into our country who really love the idea of blowing our country up.”
“When I am back in the White House, America’s enemies will know once again that if you try to kill our citizens, we will kill you. If you spill a drop of American blood, we spill a gallon of yours,” trump said.
As far as those pushing for the Palestinian ban, Zinke was secretary of the interior from 2017 until his resignation in 2019 following a series of ethical scandals, including his insistence that special flagpoles be erected so that flags could be raised or lowered when he was in residence, spending over $200,000 of taxpayer money to do so. Zinke left his post at the end of 2018 after serving two years amid mounting misconduct allegations related to his Whitefish corruption scandal involving plans to build a commercial development in Whitefish, Mont.
In 2013, Zinke hosted a radio show which focused on fringe conspiratorial views, including the contention that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Since 2010, Zinke has repeatedly expressed doubt about human impacts on climate change; in an October 2014 debate, Zinke said, “it’s not a hoax, but it’s not proven science either.”
In August 2018, Zinke said that “environmental terrorist groups” had caused the wildfires in California, and that they had “nothing to do with climate change.”
Andrew Harris is a doctor who has been in Congress since 2011. During the 2019 State of the Union Address, Harris praised trump for his efforts to restrict women’s access to abortion. He co-sponsored the 2021 Life at Conception Act, a bill to ban abortions without exceptions.
Harris also has questioned whether human activities have contributed to climate change. He is against limits on the right to carry concealed weapons. In January 2016, Harris supported trump’s proposal to eliminate gun-free zones at schools. He compared gun control efforts to Nazi gun control measures.
“Jews were not allowed to own guns in Nazi Germany and that didn’t end well,” Harris said.
Harris opposes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and has criticized amnesty as a “step back from the rule of law.” Harris also supported trump’s Muslim ban. He criticized sanctuary city policies, saying that they “create an environment of the lack of rule of law.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris opposed prohibitions on indoor dining and stay-at-home orders, and was skeptical of wearing face masks. He also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, despite the lack of evidence for its effectiveness.
Harris refused to acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 presidential election and defended trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Harris downplayed the violence of the Jan. 21, 2021 riot at the Capitol by trump supporters.
This is the first term for Aaron Bean.
Ralph Norman Jr. has been in congress since 2017. He called on trump to impose martial law to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Biden in January of 2021. After Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Norman called for an investigation into alleged voter fraud.
Scott DesJarlais is a doctor who has been in Congress since 2011. Two weeks after DesJarlais won the 2012 election, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published the full transcript of 2001 divorce proceedings, showing that DesJarlais had admitted to at least six sexual relationships with people he came in contact with while chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tenn. The transcript also revealed that despite his opposition to abortion, his former wife had had two abortions and he encouraged a former patient with whom he was having an affair to get an abortion.
DesJarlais has been married four times.
In divorce documents, DesJarlais’s first wife accused him of “dry firing a gun outside [her] locked bedroom door, admission of suicidal ideation, holding a gun in his mouth for three hours, an incident of physical intimidation at the hospital; and previous threatening behavior … i.e. shoving, tripping, pushing down, etc.”
Clay Higgins is a member of Congress since 2016 and is a reserve law enforcement officer. Higgins has spoken at events organized by fringe, anti-government militia groups such as the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers and has claimed to be a “Three Percenter.”
In 2007, he resigned from the Opelousas City police department after allegations of using unnecessary force on a subject, and lying about it in an internal investigation.
Higgins was reprimanded for violating department policy by misusing his badge and uniform for personal profit and gain. He also used his badge and uniform on his personal website to support sales of T-shirts and shot glasses for his limited liability corporation.
Higgins opposes the regulation of firearms and has endorsed the use of firearms for political confrontation. Higgins supported trump’s travel ban and said that the Chinese Communist Party had created the COVID-19 pandemic as biological warfare.
Ronny Jackson was trump’s official doctor before running for Congress. At one time, Jackson gave a news conference and praised trump’s health, “incredibly good genes” and his performance on a cognitive test (“exceedingly well”) and claimed that “if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.”
The office of the inspector general concluded that Jackson had “made sexual and denigrating statements about one of his female medical subordinates to another of his subordinates”; that Jackson “drank alcohol with his subordinates in Manila, became intoxicated, and, while in his hotel room, engaged in behavior that witnesses described as screaming and yelling, and behavior that some complained might wake the President.”
In November 2021, Jackson claimed that Democrats concocted the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as “a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots” and to “cheat” in the upcoming midterm elections.
William Posey has been in Congress since 2009. At a May 2018 hearing in the Science, Space and Technology Committee, Posey promoted the claim that climate scientists in the 1970s believed the Earth was cooling; expressed skepticism that humans contribute to climate change; and asked if warming would be beneficial for habitats and to people
Posey supports concealed carry permit reciprocity among states and is a proponent of the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism.
Felix Moore has been in Congress since 2021. He objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results in Congress. In February 2023, Moore introduced a bill, co-sponsored by Andrew Clyde, Lauren Boebert, and George Santos, to designate the “AR-15-style rifle” the National Gun of the United States.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has been in Congress since 2021. She has promoted anti-Semitic, white supremacist, and far-right conspiracy theories, including the white genocide conspiracy theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate. She supported trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and called for the results in Georgia to be decertified.
Greene has said that she does not accept the scientific fact of evolution, calling it a “type of so-called science” and saying: “I don’t believe in evolution. I believe in God.”
Andrew Biggs has been in Congress since 2016. In 2020, Biggs joined Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in a video falsely claiming there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Biggs has rejected the scientific consensus on climate change, opposed wearing masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, and encouraged Arizonans not to wear them.