Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is set to lead the House Committee on Homeland Security, which Muslim civil rights groups say is alarming because it has a history of creating. Islamophobia.
Green — a physician, Iraq War veteran and former GOP state senator — once said he didn’t want students in Tennessee to learn about Islam and Iraqis smelling like “mixed with sweat.” They have made it too anti-LGBTQ commentsincluding claiming that transgender is a disease.
“If you have stereotypes about a community, how can you effectively move forward on issues that are really nuanced and require a greater understanding of those issues?” said Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council, a Tennessee-based civic engagement organization.
Green did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
During a 2016 tea party meetingGreen told the audience that he does not want public school students in Tennessee to learn about the Islamic faith.
When the audience read a passage from a textbook that correctly states that Muslims believe in all the prophets of the Old and New Testaments, Green replied, “When you start teaching the principles of Islam … we will not tolerate it in this country.”
If students must learn about Islam, Green added, they should only study “the history of the Ottoman Empire” and “Islamic attacks into the Levant and North Africa and into Constantinople.”
President Donald Trump later nominated Green to be secretary of the Army in 2017, but Green was forced out withdraw from consideration because of anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ comments.
“Rep. Green’s well-documented history of hate speech against Muslims, LGBTQ people, and immigrants makes him unfit to be Secretary of the Army, and that history makes him unfit to chair the Homeland Security Committee,” said Sumayyah Waheed, senior policy advisor at Muslim. Advocates, a national civil rights group based in Washington, DC
“As chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green is a threat to Muslims – especially to those who live at the intersection of communities that are gleefully attacked for political gain,” he added.
As the chair, Green is likely to clamp down on immigration at the southern border. He had previously introduced legislation supporting it boundary wall construction and has gained support from conservative border hawks.
“For national security and homeland security, ending the border crisis that Biden created is a top priority,” Green said in a press release. published on Monday. “And make no mistake, we’re going to catch President Joe Biden and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas is responsible for dereliction of duty for failing to respond to this crisis.
Mohyuddin said he hoped lawmakers would reject Green’s rhetoric to help protect marginalized groups.
“There must be checks and balances so that extreme viewpoints are not included in important issues of national security,” he said.