Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) latest bill concerning Islamophobia seems to be the biggest deal on Capitol Hill. Especially after the Democrats denied six Republican amendments on the legislation, two of them being from Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL).
This week, Congresswoman Omar filed a bill that would create a new Special Envoy to counter Islamophobia at the State Department. The bill is currently in committee right now where remarks from Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) stirred the pot and the politically driven nature of the bill.
Republicans are arguing that the "bill that would do nothing to actually combat anti-Muslim bigotry and violence." Although Mast's amendment may have gone through, other lawmakers such as Steube were not so lucky.
Steube proposed two amendments, the first one simply expressing, "that the Muslim people do not have any democratic thinkers or aspirations, represented a soft bigotry of low expectations against Muslims," in Muslim majority nations in the Middle Eastern region.
The second amendment, "States that countering sectarianism against Muslim sects, including the Islamic Republic of Iran’s promotion of incitement, hatred, violations of religious freedom, and gross human rights abuses against Sunni Muslims within Iran and throughout the Middle East, and the Taliban’s promotion of incitement, hatred, violations of religious freedom, and gross human rights abuses against Shia Muslims within Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East, including through the support of economic sanctions, such as those laid out in President Donald J. Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, to deny the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Taliban, the resources to commit sectarian acts against Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Both of these amendments along with other amendments that sought to employ former President Trump's (R) "maximum pressure," policies against Muslim extremists, were denied.
Rep. Mooney (R-WV) even proposed an amendment to establish another Special Envoy to counter China's genocide of the Uyghurs, enhancing economic sanctions on China, and further boycotting the 2022 Olympic games, a move that even President Biden (D) agrees with.
