Muslim congresswoman blasts Islamophobic message

WASHINGTON A Palestinian-American Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib blasted on Tuesday Florida city commissioner’s Islamophobic message. In a Jan. 8 Facebook post, Anabelle Lima-Taub, a commissioner in Hallandale Beach, compared Tlaib to a suicide bomber, who will blow up herself one day. “A Hamas-loving anti-Semite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill,” Lima-Taub wrote. Tlaib said in a tweet: “This sort of hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric doesn’t happen in a vacuum - this President embraced it and Republicans have happily gone along with it.” The Florida official -- who also added a link to a petition demanding Tlaib be removed from Congress -- faced harsh criticism for her Islamophobic message. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for Lima-Taub’s resignation. “CAIR-Florida strongly condemns the disgraceful racist and Islamophobic statements published by Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub,” Wilfredo Ruiz, communications director for the CAIR in Florida, said in a statement.