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US Congress to vote on setting up State Dept anti-Islamophobia office

December 14, 2021 at 11:26 am

US congresswoman Ilhan Omar during a press conference in Minnesota, US on 7 July 2020 [Brandon Bell/Getty Images]

Democratic proposal for a US State Department office addressing anti-Muslim bias will get a procedural vote in a House committee today, after a Republican congresswoman used an Islamophobic slur against a Democratic colleague, Reuters reports.

The bill, authored by Representative Ilhan Omar, would create a special envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia, and include state-sponsored anti-Muslim violence in the department’s annual human rights reports.

The House Rules committee will discuss and vote on the bill today, a key step before it can advance to the full House.

That comes just a few weeks after video emerged showing first-term Republican Representative Lauren Boebert calling Omar, a Muslim who was born in Somalia, a member of a “jihad squad”.

That comment led to calls by Democrats for a vote to strip Boebert of her committee assignments, and some criticism by fellow Republican Representative Nancy Mace.

READ: Islamophobia is often fanned by the mainstream media; I have witnessed it