Republican congressman from Florida urged to resign over derogatory social media about Muslims

A Republican congressman from Florida has been urged to resign after making derogatory comments about Muslims on social media.

Rep. Randy Fine, who represents the Sunshine State’s 6th district, took to the social media platform on Sunday with an inflammatory take: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”

Fine’s post was in response to one by Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, in which she called dogs "unclean" and said "NYC is coming to Islam."

The congressman subsequently wrote: "For context, this is the leader of one of the key mainstream Muslim groups that supported [New York Mayor Zohran] Mamdani,” who is himself a practicing Muslim.

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His comments sparked outrage from other politicians, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, responding to Fine with a message on X: “Resign now, you racist slob.”

“If anyone said something this vile in any workplace, they’d be fired,” added Arizona congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, another Democrat, who called for House Speaker Mike Johnson to take action against her colleague.

Liberal congressional firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is from New York, described Fine’s post as “genuinely one of the most disgusting statements I have ever seen issued by an American official.”

“It should not stop shocking us that the Republican Party openly embraces this,” she wrote on X. “Fine should be censured & stripped of committees. To ignore this is to accept and normalize it.”

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In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a major Islamic civil rights group, once again called for Fine’s resignation.

“Between his call for the destruction of all ‘mainstream Muslims,’ his claim that Palestinian identity itself is evil, and his call for the killing of everyone in Gaza, Randy Fine is a modern Klansman and Nazi all wrapped into one, only his targets are Muslims and Palestinians,” the council said in an update on its website.

“Leaders of Congress across the political spectrum should demand his resignation, which is long overdue.”

Kiswani, the pro-Palestinian activist, replied to her own message by pointing out that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem infamously killed a dog, which had met with a muted response from Republicans.

“Kristi Noem literally bragged about shooting her own dog and most of you did not bat an eyelash. A Muslim in NYC says maybe the city is not the best place for pets and it is days of death threats from MAGA and Zionists,” Kiswani wrote.

The activist later clarified to NBC News that her original comment had been “satire” based on a “hyperlocal NYC conversation” about dog excrement in New York after a recent snowstorm, and she was “satirizing Islamophobic hysteria portraying Mamdani’s mayoralty as a societal takeover.”

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Kiswani went on to identify “a troubling pattern in which anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian rhetoric from elected officials has not been met with the level of accountability we would expect if almost any other community were discussed this way.”

Neither Speaker Mike Johnson nor the White House offered immediate comment on the growing furore around Rep. Fine, who has refused to back down from his inflammatory remarks.

In response to criticism, Fine has repeatedly posted images on social media of dogs on a bright yellow background over the words “Don’t Tread On Me” - an adaption of the Gadsden flag, which typically shows a snake and is widely understood as right-wing iconography.

He took a defiant tone in response to a message from British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who called him a “disgusting p***k”: "We will not be shamed into being conquered like the Europeans.”

Fine took office less than a year ago in a special election and was previously a state congressman in Florida.

He is an ardent supporter of Israel, reveling in the nickname “Hebrew Hammer,” and has repeatedly defended the country’s actions during its military campaign in Gaza.