Republican task force overseeing freedom to worship accused of Islamophobia

Trump-aligned Republican leadership in the US Congress recently unveiled seven policy task forces. But the composition of one of the task forces on freedom of worship angered some progressive Democrats like Ilhan Omar. 

On Tuesday, Omar tweeted that the task force, which is called Future of American Freedoms, includes members like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right conspiracy theorist. The task force will be led by Jim Jordan, a passionate pro-Trump politician. 

The Republican task force will defend rights like “the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and the right to bear arms" according to its mission statement. 

But Omar questioned how a Republican like Greene, who does not believe in “freedom of worship”, can work in a task force, overseeing the conditions of a fundamental freedom. 

“Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to force me and @RashidaTlaib to retake our oaths of office on the Christian Bible instead of the Quran, she doesn’t believe in religious freedom or the constitution,” Omar tweeted. 

Both Omar, the first Somali-Muslim congresswoman, and Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American member of the House, are Muslim members of the Democratic Party. Greene has been known for her Islamophobic statements, and is a fierce opponent of Muslim migration to the US. 

“There is an Islamic invasion into our government offices right now,” Greene said in one of her past statements, referring to the election of Muslim members like Omar and Tlaib to the Congress. 

“You saw after midterm elections, we saw so many Muslims elected,” the far-right Republican said in a misleading speech. Out of 535 members of the US Congress, there are only four Muslims, serving in the House. There are around 3.3 million Muslims in the US, equal to about 1 percent of the total US population. 

Greene was particularly furious about Omar, who spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya before entering the US as an asylum-seeker with her family in 1995. 

“We had that woman out of Minnesota. Now she’s going into Congress and she’s got to wear a head covering, they want to put their hand on the Quran and be sworn in,” Greene said, bringing into question her understanding of freedom of worship granted by the US constitution and laws. 

“This is who the GOP wants on the task force overseeing our “freedom to worship”??” Ilhan wrote on Twitter.