Rep. Mark Green (Credit: US Congress/WikiCommons)
Nadine Osman
Muslim advocacy groups in the US have expressed concern about the appointment of a Republican Congressman, Mark Edward Green, as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, citing his history of anti-Muslim views.
Green was elected by House Republicans on January 9.
Muslim organisations, however, have stated the former Tennessee senator is unfit to serve on the committee given his previous statements on Muslims and the Islamic faith.
“If you hold stereotypes about communities, how can you effectively move on issues that are nuanced and require a greater understanding of the issues?” asked Sabina Mohyuddin, Executive Director of the American Muslim Advisory Council.
“As chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green is a threat to Muslims—especially to those that live at the intersections of the communities he has gleefully attacked for political gain,” said Sumayyah Waheed, senior policy counsel at Muslim Advocates.
At a 2016 meeting of the Tea Party, a far-right movement within the Republican Party, the Iraq War veteran told an audience that he did not want students in Tennessee to learn about Islam. During that meeting, one audience member said that “we need to take a stand on the indoctrination of Islam in our public schools.” To which Green responded, “I agree.”
“We have to teach the history of the Ottoman Empire, Mecca, Medina, and all of the assaults of Islam out into the Levant and North Africa, and Constantinople,” he said, using the phrase “Muslim horde” to describe the spread of Islam.
When an audience member read a passage from a textbook that correctly stated that Muslims believe in all the prophets in the Old and New Testament, Green replied, “When you start teaching the pillars of Islam… we will not tolerate that in this state.”
In 2015, during his time as a Tennessee state senator, Green also called for a ban on Syrian refugees entering his state. Green was similarly scrutinised by Muslim organisations in 2017 after he was nominated by then-President Donald Trump to be Secretary of the Army, though he eventually withdrew his candidacy.
