After a week of posting incendiary remarks toward Islam on the platform “X,” U.S. Rep. Randy Fine is still doubling down.
On Monday, Fine, the Florida Congressional District 6 Republican, held a telephone town hall meeting ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming State of the Union speech.
“We’re going to stand strong against the Islamification of America,” Fine said. He said his guest to the State of the Union would be his father, who Fine said is legally blind, and a seeing-eye dog named Sadie.
The move is a nod toward the legislation Fine filed last week, “Protect Puppies from Sharia.” It would “prohibit federal funds from being provided to any state or local government that bans dogs as pets,” according to a press release from Fine’s office.
Fine filed the legislation after a flurry of posts on “X” went viral last week. His posts contained several anti-muslim statements, which some Central Florida experts have called “divisive” and “racist.”
“It's creating a single group of individuals and saying they are all unworthy of being equal with us,” said Thomas Bryer, a University of Central Florida professor of civic prosperity.
Why is Rep. Fine talking about dogs?
Last week, Fine posted a message on the social media platform X stating, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” He later added in a follow-up post that he would choose his “dog.”
Fine’s post was directed at a Palestinian American activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, and a comment she made last week in a discussion about dogs in New York City.
“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,” she wrote. Kiswani has since said she was joking as part of a greater discussion about dogs and their droppings in New York.
Fine dismissed Kiswani’s explanation and created a series of posts with different breeds of dogs featured on the “don’t tread on me” flag. He did so during Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam.
“Having a dog is intrinsic to being American,” Fine said on Monday. “If you're going to come between me and my dog, you can go home.”
Growing Islamophobia
Bryer said that Fine’s words are an example of Islamophobia, which can manifest in violence.
“We have to be careful of when those two points really align, the rhetoric, the language leading to behavior leading to violence,” Bryer said.
Islamophobia has been on the rise in recent years, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2022, there were 158 reported anti-muslim incidents. That number rose to 236 in 2023. The FBI did not release individual religious-motivated hate crime statistics for 2024. It did note a slight decrease in hate between 2023 and 2024, but religiously motivated incidents made up 24% of the 11,679 total.
Fine’s proposed bill has the backing of nine Republican representatives. However, Fine’s recent comments and legislation have lost him key allies in Central Florida, including Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood. Last week, the Sheriff announced he could no longer support or endorse Fine due to his attack on “our Muslim neighbors.”
“The statement he made repeatedly indicates that he has a heart filled with hate, and he's not an individual that we want to engage with,” said Imam Muhammed Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida.
Musri said that Fines' comments are in line with President Donald Trump’s attitudes toward Muslims, referencing Trump's policies targeting Somali Muslims in Minnesota, including eliminating the temporary protected status of those who are not U.S. citizens.
“Statements from public officials, from lawmakers or the president or people in his circle, carry weight and have an impact on the population, and it sends a message to common people who don't know any better to think or believe that all Muslims are evil or terrorists,” Musri said.
Changing government policies
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hateful religious rhetoric is damaging in all forms, but it’s different when it comes from a political leader.
“The difference is that when it comes from someone in an elevated position with a broader voice that reaches more people, it amplifies that harm and that negativity and that dehumanizing nature of the state,” said Scott McCoy, the deputy legal director at the SPLC, who leads an anti-extremism advocacy team.
McCoy said that the 2024 Hamas attack against Israel in the Middle East was a “flash point” for Islamophobia in the U.S.
“There's a sense,” McCoy said, “that there is political advantage in making statements like this and pushing issues like this … this movement in the United States, where Islamophobia is really peaking and driving a lot of things in the public policy realm.”
Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott officially designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a "foreign terrorist organization." CAIR is one of the largest Muslim civil rights organizations in the country. Shortly after the Texas legislation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed suit.
In December, CAIR filed a lawsuit against DeSantis following his designation. Regarding Fine’s legislation, the organization didn’t want to say much.
“We are incredibly busy with real work, and he is busy with dramatic sensationalism,” said Hiba Rahim, CAIR’s interim executive director in Florida.
Rahim said she found Fine’s comments “disgusting” and not accurate about Muslims.
“I'm a Muslim, and I love dogs. We had a dog, and when my kids were young, as a lesson in mercy and humanity, I took them to the shelter to take care of the dogs there,” she said.
Rahim said she didn’t want to acknowledge Fine’s comments more than she had to, but she included one word of advice for voters in his District 6, which stretches across six counties from South Daytona to Eustis and Belleview, Palatka, and Butler Beach
“Vote him out,” she said.
