Representative. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is set to lead the House Homeland Security Committee, which Muslim civil rights groups say is alarming because it has a history of Islamophobic remarks.
Green — a doctor, Iraq war veteran and former GOP state senator — once said he didn’t want Tennessee students to learn about Islam and that the Iraqis reeked of “curry mixed with sweat.” Even him anti-LGBTQ remarksincluding supporting that being transgender was a disease.
“If you hold stereotypes about communities, how can you actually move on to issues that are really nuanced and require a better understanding of the issues?” said Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council, a Tennessee-based civic engagement organization.
Green did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
During Tea Meeting 2016Green told the audience that he does not want Tennessee public school students to learn about the Islamic faith.
When an audience member read a passage from a textbook that correctly stated that Muslims believe in all the prophets of the Old and New Testaments, Green responded: “When you start learning the pillars of Islam … I will not tolerate it in this state. .”
If students want to learn about Islam, Green added, they should only learn “the history of the Ottoman Empire” and “the attack of Islam in the Levant and North Africa and in Constantinople.”
Then-President Donald Trump nominated Green to be Secretary of the Army in 2017, but Green was forced to withdraw from consideration due to his anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ comments.
“Representative Green’s well-documented history of inciting hatred against Muslims, LGBTQ people, and immigrants makes him unfit to be Secretary of the Army, and that history makes him unfit to chair the House Homeland Security Committee,” said Sumayyah Waheed, a senior politician. counsel at Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights group based in Washington, DC
“As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green is a threat to Muslims, especially those living at the crossroads of communities he has gleefully attacked for political gain,” he added.
As president, Green will likely crack down on immigration at the southern border. Legislation previously introduced in favor border wall construction and won the support of conservative border hawks.
“For the sake of our national and national security, ending the border crisis that Biden has created is our top priority,” Green said in a news release. published see you Monday. “And make no mistake, we will arrest President Joe Biden and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas is responsible for the total failure to address this crisis.”
Mohyuddin said he hopes lawmakers will reject Green’s rhetoric to help keep marginalized groups safe.
“Checks and balances are needed so that the extreme viewpoint is not inserted into important national security issues,” he said.
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