Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Thursday shared a social media post calling Muslims “the enemy,” joining a growing number of sitting GOP members to share Islamophobic rhetoric.
Tuberville on Thursday retweeted a post that showed a picture of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by people that was juxtaposed with a photo of the Twin Towers in New York burning on Sept. 11, 2001. The caption of the original post read, “Less than 25 years apart.”
Tuberville added his own caption: “The enemy is inside the gates.”
A spokesperson for Tuberville’s office referred POLITICO to a separate post by Tuberville on Thursday that stated that calling Islam a “cult” doesn’t make someone an Islamophobe, among other things.
In U.S. courts, state and federal laws supersede religious rules. However, a group of congressional members have started the Sharia-Free America Caucus.
A spokesperson for Mamdani, who is the first Muslim mayor of New York City, referred POLITICO to Mamdani’s own post.
“Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Tuberville’s post Thursday is the latest in a string of anti-Islam attacks made by sitting members of Congress. Earlier this week, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) faced backlash for saying “Muslims don’t belong in America.” Last month, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) faced calls for censure from Democrats after saying dogs are preferable to Muslims.
But Republican leadership has not publicly denounced or reprimanded members for such posts.
Speaker Mike Johnson did not condemn Ogles’ post this week, and none of the Senate GOP leadership — Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Whip John Barrasso or Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton — immediately responded to requests for comment on Tuberville’s post.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, was quick to condemn Tuberville’s post as “Islamophobic hate.”
“This is mindless hate,” Schumer said in a post on X. “Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbors, mayors, and more. Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it whenever it rears its ugly head.”
