Johnson refuses condemn Islamophobic posts by House Republicans

WASHINGTON (CN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday stopped short of condemning a group of Republican lawmakers who faced broad pushback over social media posts that many critics and Muslim advocacy groups said were blatantly Islamophobic.

And though he said he’d use “different language” to discuss the subject the top House Republican claimed his colleagues — some of whom said Muslims do not belong in American society and compared them to dogs — were merely expressing “popular sentiment” about people practicing Islamic religious law in the U.S.

“I’ve spoken to those members and all members, as I always do, about our tone and message and what we say,” Johnson told reporters during a news conference Tuesday at House Republicans’ retreat in Doral, Florida. But the House speaker added there is a “lot of energy” in the country behind the sentiment that “the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem.”

“That’s what animates this and the language that people use,” Johnson claimed. “It’s different language than I would use, but I think that’s a serious issue.”

Florida Representative Randy Fine and Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles were among the GOP lawmakers who’ve found themselves in hot water in recent weeks over posts about Islam. Fine faced calls for his resignation last month after he suggested he valued the lives of dogs over Muslims.

“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” the Florida Republican wrote.

Fine tied his comments to posts by a pro-Palestinian activist supporting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The activist has said her post calling dogs “unclean” was satirical. The congressman, however, has doubled down on his own stance, introducing a bill in February that he said would block federal funds to states or local governments that ban dogs.

And Ogles this week made even more explicit overtures against Muslims in the U.S. in a string of social media posts over the weekend and through Tuesday.

“Muslims don’t belong in American society,” the Tennessee Republican wrote on X. “Pluralism is a lie.”

Ogles’ posts drew widespread condemnation — including from at least one Trump administration official. Richard Grenell, former ambassador to Germany and current president of the Kennedy Center, accused the congressman of “attacking the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

But Ogles has doubled down on his statements. “My comments wouldn’t even be a news story if I had said this about Christians,” he said in a post Monday night. “Please spare me your moral outrage. Cry harder.”

After X limited the visibility of his anti-Islam posts in the European Union, Ogles fired back in a post Tuesday that he had been “silenced” by the EU and claimed that “Muslims run their government.”

Still, Johnson on Tuesday appeared to suggest that Ogles, Fine and other Republican lawmakers who have ratcheted up Islamophobic rhetoric in recent weeks were tapping into some broader sentiment about people practicing Sharia law in the U.S.

“Sharia law and the imposition of Sharia law is contrary to the U.S. Constitution,” said the House speaker. “One of the principles that we believe in, stated first in the nation’s birth certificate, is that all of us are created equal by God … and that we respect everyone’s beliefs and their right to live out their beliefs and speak freely about their beliefs.”

But Johnson added that people refusing to “assimilate” or adhere to Islamic religious law in the U.S. put them “in conflict” with the Constitution.

“That’s the conflict that people are talking about,” he argued. “It’s not about people as Muslims. It’s about those who seek to impose a different belief system than us that is in direct conflict with the Constitution.”

In a statement Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the country’s largest Muslim advocacy groups, branded Ogles an “anti-Muslim extremist” over his comments.

“If any member of Congress had declared that ‘Jews do not belong in America,’ that politician would rightfully face condemnation and censure,” said Edward Mitchell, the organization’s national deputy director. “Yet like Randy Fine and other anti-Muslim extremists in Congress, Mr. Ogles has faced no consequences for his dangerous rhetoric, even as American Muslim elected officials experience censure motions, threats and harassment for daring to criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

The push to bar people from adhering to Islamic religious law in the U.S. is not new. As many as eight states have bans on Sharia law or other provisions blocking courts from considering religious law. Texas Governor Greg Abbott in September signed a law effectively blocking the construction of a 1,000-home community in the Lone Star State built around a mosque, which the governor has referred to as a “Sharia compound.”

Texas Representatives Keith Self and Chip Roy in December unveiled what they’ve called the “Sharia Free America Caucus” in Congress, a voting bloc they’ve said is aimed at countering Islamic religious law and “preserving the American way of life.”

Fine and Ogles are both members of that caucus.

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