[ad_1]
Breaking News Emails
Receive last minute alerts and special reports. News and stories that matter, delivered in the morning on weekdays.
/ Update
By Dareh Gregorian
Angry arguments erupted Friday in the state of West Virginia after the Republican Party mounted an anti-Muslim poster in the rotunda linking the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to a new Minnesota Congressman.
One staff member was physically injured during the morning clashes and another official resigned after being accused of having made anti-Muslim remarks.
The screen featured a photo of the World Trade Center in New York as a fireball exploded from one of the twin towers above a photo of the Muslim Democratic Republic Ilhan Omar.
"Never forget" – you said … "read a caption on the first picture. "I'm proof – you forgot", read the caption under the photo of Omar, who wears a hijab.
The display was set up as part of the "WV GOP Day", which the party announced on Facebook as a day when "Republicans take the rotunda".
Several Democrats opposed the protest and reportedly had a fight with House Sergeant Anne Lieberman after she made an anti-Muslim remark.
Of the. Mike Angelucci, D-Marion, alleged that Lieberman had stated that "all Muslims are terrorists".
He said that it was a "hate speech".
"Muslims are not terrorists, Christians have killed people, it does not mean that Christians are terrorists, I'm a Christian, I'm a proud Christian, I'm not a terrorist." he declares.
"I am furious and I do not want to see her represent in the House the citizens of this great state," said Angelucci about Lieberman, who became the first state weapons sergeant. last year. S addressing West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Lieberman denied making this comment. By the end of the day, she had resigned "with immediate effect," officials said.
Indignation continued on the floor of the house, where Democrat Del. Mike Pushkin targeted the display.
"It's ugly, it's hateful and there is absolutely no room for that in American politics," said Pushkin, according to WVNews. "Not in the country I love, not in the state that I love, we all give up our time during this time of the year to come here and serve our constituents because that we love this state.Well, I love everyone in the state no matter what they look like, who they pray to, who they like, I'm tired, it disgusts me. "
Pushkin, who is Jewish, added, "I am proud to live in a country in which someone can enter this country with absolutely nothing and end up in the corridors of Congress representing the state of Minnesota. "
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw issued a statement saying his office was investigating what had happened.
"At the beginning of today 's meeting, we had a series of incidents in our assembly and outside of it, which absolutely do not reflect the character and nature of the meeting. the courtesy that the officials of this state demand from their officials, the leadership of the House of Delegates is currently working to investigate these incidents in order to learn first-hand the factual basis of what has happened and to respond to them with appropriate measures. ", the statement said.
"The House of Delegates of West Virginia has flatly rejected hate in all its forms."
The House is made up of 59 Republicans and 41 Democrats.
Hanshaw said in a subsequent speech that an unidentified staff member had been injured during the clashes, without giving further details. "I'm fighting flat out with what you have to say," he said. "We have allowed politics at the national level to become a cancer in our state .. to invade our room in a way that makes me ashamed."
"We can do better," he added.
A spokesman for Omar did not respond to a request for comment.
Another Republican representative, Eric Porterfield, was called on to resign last month after calling LGBTQ groups "the closest thing to political terrorism in America" and "a modern version of the Ku Klux Klan".
"Let me be very clear with my statement," Porterfield told NBC News. "The LGBTQ – not the homosexuals – are the modern version of the Ku Klux Klan."
[ad_2]
Source link