Submitted by: Ruth Hammons
House Democrats Force Through ‘Islamophobia’ Bill Without a Single Republican Vote
Published
20 hours agoon
December 15, 2021
The House on Tuesday passed a bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota that would establish a State Department office to fight “Islamophobia” worldwide.
The Combating International Islamophobia Act was approved 219-212 along party lines.
All the votes for the bill came from Democrats without a single Republican legislator voting in favor, according to the House of Representatives’ Office of the Clerk. All the votes against came from Republicans, with no Democrat voting against the party line.
One Democrat and two Republican representatives abstained from voting.
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The bill instructs the secretary of state to create an “Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia” led by a presidentially appointed “special envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia.”
The legislation also mandates that, starting 180 days after its enactment, the State Department include acts of anti-Muslim violence and incitement in its annual human rights reports on countries worldwide and in its annual international religious freedom report.
A final provision in the bill prohibits any funds allocated to the bill’s fulfillment from going to efforts to “promote or endorse a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement ideology” or “used to promote or endorse a Muslim ban, such as the one instituted by former President Trump.”
In none of the sections, however, does the bill define what makes up “Islamophobia.”
“As a country that was founded on religious liberty, our leadership on international religious freedom depends on recognizing that Islamophobia is global in scope, and that we must lead the global effort to address it,” Omar, who is Muslim and a member of the so-called squad of progressive lawmakers, said during a House debate on the legislation.
The passage of this legislation in the House of Representatives is a huge milestone for Muslims around the world and a powerful signal that Islamophobia cannot be tolerated anywhere.
Standing up against bigotry might expose one to attacks but we shouldn’t coward. Stand tall.
https://t.co/e51Ao9NapV
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 15, 2021
According to The Associated Press, the bill is viewed as a Democratic response to Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who had earlier said that Omar was part of the “jihad squad” of lawmakers in Congress.
Boebert was also filmed making a remark that some considered to be Islamophobic, the AP reported.
The video showed the conservative firebrand narrating to her constituents that a police officer at the Capitol approached her with a “fret on his face” after she got inside an elevator.
“I look to my left and there she is — Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,'” Boebert then reportedly said, with a laugh.
Some who thought Boebert was saying Omar was not carrying a suicide bomb considered the backpack reference offensive.
The video was denounced by House Democratic leaders, who released a statement in condemnation of what they called “Boebert’s repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments.”
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