#randy fine

Joe Perticone at The Bulwark:

Almost a decade removed from President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban Muslims from entering the country during his first term—a vile passion project that has been given new life in his second presidency—a growing number of House and Senate Republicans are taking Islamophobia to a new level, actively calling for discrimination against Muslims and even arguing that some should be denaturalized and deported from the United States.

Foremost among the proudly anti-Muslim politicians is Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.). “I think mainstream Islam is not compatible,” Fine said in a November Newsmax interview when asked by host Todd Starnes if Muslims can coexist with the Constitution. “I think mainstream Islam is a threat to the United States.” “The left is rooted in a belief that all cultures are equal, that we’re all good people, that we can sit and talk through our problems, that we all share the same values. And that is not true,” Fine said last week in another Newsmax appearance. “There is evil in this world. Mainstream Islam, as we saw on October 7th, as we’ve seen in Syria, as we’ve seen in Nigeria—it lionizes and it glorifies death. That’s what they celebrate.” In another post attacking a speech by his House colleague, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who is a practicing Muslim, Fine wrote: “This is the ugly face of Islam in America. Believe them when they say they are just getting started. It’s up to us to stop them.”

If this were all Fine had said about Islam in public, it would be a grotesque, alarming problem. But this is just a sampling of the man’s pronouncements about a two billion–person religious community. Fine posts about Islam a lot. Since November, he’s posted the word “Muslim” more than 50 times from his official account on X. That tally includes promotions of cable news interviews he’s done and random musings about this perceived threat of people who worship differently from him. Fine isn’t the only one taking the anti-Muslim rhetoric to another level. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is now running for governor, posted that Islam is “a cult,” and that its adherents in the United States are “here to conquer” in order to establish a caliphate. Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus,1 reposted Tuberville’s statement. It’s hard to imagine Tuberville offering a clearer or more direct condemnation of the world’s second-largest religion. It certainly goes beyond anything he’s said before. Comparing this post with his past statements gives you a sense of how acceptable it has become in the GOP to openly spout anti-Islamic bigotry.

Consider what Tuberville sounded like just two months ago. “If you want to peacefully practice your religion, that’s fine with me,” the Senator said in October. “That’s what our Constitution gives you the right to do. Our Constitution gives you that right, and that’s why we have millions—millions—of Christians, Jews, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, and peaceful Muslims who worship freely in this great country of ours called the United States of America.” (Emphasis mine.) At the time of that speech, Tuberville was pushing a bill to ban Sharia law, a religious philosophy he, Fine, and others believe (or claim to believe) is a tool to usurp the Constitution and turn entire cities into Muslim caliphates. It’s hardly the only bill of its kind under consideration. In the House, there are currently six bills that disapprovingly mention or attempt to ban Sharia law in some way, one of them being a companion to Tuberville’s “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act.” (Several are resolutions concerning Nigeria, a country Trump offhandedly threatened for allegedly being a hotbed of anti-Christian persecution earlier this year.)

Those efforts reflected the longtime GOP priority of combating Islamic extremism. But that objective is quickly morphing into fuller blown anti-Islam hysteria. It’s coming from up high, with President Donald Trump unleashing a wave of bigotry against Somali Americans in Minnesota and Vice President JD Vance echoing it with racist remarks about the same community at the recent Turning Point USA rally. But it’s also finding its way into formal congressional business. Fine is considering drafting a resolution to expel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from Congress in the new year. “I don’t think she should be a citizen, let alone a member of Congress,” Fine told Axios. If he goes ahead with it, Fine’s effort will fail in the House. But even though he can’t succeed in expelling Omar, his attempt to do so would still represent the internal permission structure the Republican party is building to allow its members to more openly discriminate against Muslims.

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Instead of focusing on how to make life more affordable for their constituents, two Florida Republican members of Congress are pressuring Irish dance officials to bar a transgender girl from competing in girls’ categories at one of the sport’s largest North American competitions, carrying the right’s anti-trans sports campaign into the world of competitive dance. U.S. Reps. Randy Fine and Greg Steube sent a June 24 letter to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, the Dublin-based governing body for Irish dance, and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America ahead of the North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando, according to a post on Fine’s Facebook page. The competition is scheduled for July 2-7 at the Rosen Centre Hotel, according to the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America and the championship’s official website.

“Biological males do not belong in girls’ dance,” Fine wrote in a post sharing the letter. “Florida law is clear: girls’ categories are for biological females.” In the letter, Fine and Steube demanded that the Irish dance organizations “stop allowing boys to compete in and win girls’ categories in Orlando.” They cited Florida’s 2021 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender girls and women from participating on girls’ and women’s school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. The law applies to public secondary schools and public postsecondary institutions.

This is pure anti-trans lunacy.

See Also:

Randy Fine (FL-06) United States Representative

I recently noticed this guy and now I want more.

He has a young bootleg Jerry Mathers AKA The Beaver look to him that I like.