Anti-Muslim sentiment remains alive and well in the United States. This past week at the West Virginia state capitol, a poster popped up that explicitly tied new Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to the 9/11 terror attacks, calling the Muslim U.S. Representative the “proof” that Americans have “forgotten” the incident. The display sparked a heated argument involving the now former state House Sergeant at Arms and apparently multiple Democratic state representatives, one of whom may face disciplinary action for his behavior.
The poster originally went up as part of a “Republicans Take The Rotunda” event, which included outside vendors. The state GOP has condemned the sentiment, asserting that the “West Virginia Republican Party does not approve, condone, or support hate speech” and insisting that they had no advance knowledge of the display and sought its removal once they learned of it.
That did not come before the damage was done, however. Then-Sgt. at Arms Anne Lieberman allegedly used an anti-Muslim slur and asserted that all Muslims are terrorists in a heated argument over the poster directly involving at least one Democratic lawmaker. Although she initially denied the accusation, she quickly resigned from her position.
House Minority Whip Mike Caputo was also involved in the fallout over the display’s emergence, and at one point angrily kicked a door to the House chambers open, injuring a doorkeeper who was taken to a hospital “for evaluation.” Saturday morning, he will be facing a hearing that at least in part is meant to decide whether he should face disciplinary action. He did not shy away from scrutiny of his behavior, asserting:
‘We have created an anger that I have never witnessed in 23 years in this body and it sickens me. It absolutely sickens me. So yeah, I kicked the door open and I’ll own it.’
He says that he was being blocked from entering the House chamber.
Remarkably, there was not unified opposition among state House members to the poster. Republican Dianna Graves, for instance, said that while she “may not agree with everything that is out there,” she will work to protect “free speech” — which apparently now includes claiming that someone has a connection to the 9/11 terror attacks with no basis whatsoever other than their cultural identity.
Meanwhile, Democrat Michael Angelucci countered while discussing his accusation of hate speech against the now former state House Sergeant at Arms:
‘That’s beyond shameful, and that’s not freedom of speech, that’s hate speech. That has no place in this House, the people’s House, and I am furious.’
This incident is not the first to grab similar attention from inside the West Virginia state House. Not too long ago, Republican Eric Porterfield explicitly and repeatedly compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan and went so far as to suggest during an appearance on local news that he would drown his children if they came out to him as gay.
He still serves in the state House, which would make it deeply ironic for the state House to discipline any Democrats for their part in the anger over the anti-Muslim display at the capitol this past week. That bigotry has consequences — Omar was among those who Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Hasson was recently revealed to be plotting to assassinate.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
