(Washington, D.C. – 11/09/2023) – The US Council of Muslim Organizations today denounces the U.S. House of Representatives for voting to unjustly and hypocritically single out and censure Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib due to her vocal opposition to the Netanyahu government’s ongoing attempted genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Those members of Congress who voted to censure the only Palestinian-American representative in the House have thrown another log onto the fire of anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry that is spreading across our nation.
Their decision was also hypocritical. Numerous members of the House have made openly hateful statements about Palestinians and other minorities without facing condemnation, much less censure.
Last night’s censure, only the 26th in U.S. House history, is in reality a badge of honor for Tlaib, who had the political and moral courage to forthrightly condemn this blatant Israeli and U.S.-funded, supplied, and supported genocide against the Palestinians and to call for liberating the Palestinian people from ethnic cleansing, occupation, persecution, and apartheid.
This House vote of censure, moreover, proves beyond doubt that its endorsing representatives are themselves racist supremacists who, in fact, hate freedom and will not tolerate the humanizing of Palestinians.
Rashida Tlaib thus takes an honored place in the dark annals of the U.S. House of Representatives next to the likes of Whig Party Congressman Joshua Giddings (appropriately representing Northeast Ohio, not far from Tlaib’s Michigan district), who Congress censured in 1842 for daring to introduce an anti-slavery bill.
We commend Congresswoman Tlaib for her brave stance in the face of bigotry and for supporting the God-given human rights of all people in the Holy Land—Muslims and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis, and others.
We believe that present and future generations will ultimately recognize that Rashida Tlaib and others who support Palestinian human rights are on the right side of history.
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