WASHINGTON — A House attempt to pass a bill to combat anti-Muslim bigotry became mired in charges of just that bias when a right-wing Republican from Pennsylvania accused the bill’s co-sponsor, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, of anti-Semitism and harboring sympathy for terrorists.
Representative Scott Perry, the incoming leader of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, attacked the measure, which would create a new special envoy position in the State Department to fight “Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement.” But his harshest words were directed at Ms Omar, one of the two Muslim women in the House and a co-author of the measure.
“U.S. taxpayers should not be forced to pay terrorist organizations affiliated with the author of this bill, such as the one who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror financing case in the history of the United States of America,” said mr. said Perry.
The attack was an intricate reference to a case more than a decade ago against the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity that was convicted in 2008 for funding Islamist militant groups. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a human rights group, was one of nearly 250 organizations and individuals named as co-conspirators.
The then federal government said it included the organizations on the list to gather evidence for the trial, but the court and a federal appeals court ruled it was a mistake to make the list public. A decade later, modeled on the Anti-Defamation League, the council honored Ms. Omar, who gave a speech to the department in California.
None of that information was provided by Mr. perry. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat of Michigan and an ally of Ms. Omar, took immediate action to remove Mr Perry’s words from the official record of the debate, causing the House floor to grind to a halt. Finally, Mr. Perry was not allowed to speak on Tuesday evening.
The outcry showed the rift between the two parties, even as House Democratic leaders try to defuse the inflammatory issue of bigotry. The anti-Muslim-bias bill came four weeks after a video surfaced of Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert suggesting that Ms. Omar could be a suicide bomber and calling her a member of the “jihad squad.”
Several Democrats wanted their leaders to punish Ms. Boebert by stripping her of her committee duties, but the leaders chose not to. They had already done that this year with two other Republicans, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona. California speaker Nancy Pelosi said further action could be taken against Ms. Boebert.
Ms. Pelosi said Tuesday evening that she had hoped the House would come together “in a spirit of unity” over the anti-Islamophobia law. Instead, she said, what followed was “an attack on the faith of one of our members.”
Republican House leaders denounced the bill, saying it would create what they called a redundant office within the State Department, and because “Islamophobia” was not clearly defined, they raised the prospect that such a new office could are used to counter the efforts of Israel. Islamic organizations such as Hamas.
Representative Andy Barr, Republican from Kentucky, called it “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”