Once again, a conservative politician wrote something truly despicable on social media. This time, it was Florida rep. Randy Fine.
On Sunday, Randy posted this tweet: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Obviously, this would be disgusting Islamophobia from any random internet troll. But from a lawmaker!!!
Randy’s tweet was in response to a joke posted by Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization. “Finally, NYC is coming to Islam. Dogs definitely have a place in society, just not as indoor pets. Like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.”
In a follow-up tweet, she wrote, “Lmao at the Zionists frothing at the mouth at this, thinking they’re doing something. It’s obviously a joke I don’t care if you have a dog, I do care if your dog is shitting everywhere and you’re not cleaning it.”
She continued, “Also clearly trying to weigh in on an issue unaware of the current nyc discourse where we’re collectively (jokingly) hating on dogs given all the visible dog shit in the unmelted snow lmao.”
It’s worth noting that Nerdeen posted all those tweets (including the clarification that she was joking) on Feb. 12, while Randy posted the anti-Muslim comment on Feb. 15.
Despite swift and severe backlash, he’s doubled down and repeatedly posted seemingly AI-generated images of dogs with the words: “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”
Obviously, the internet had a lot to say about this:
And finally, from Gavin Newsom: