Some Republicans in Congress have drawn criticism for posting anti‑Muslim rhetoric, including comments targeting New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, with one picturing him alongside a photograph of the September 11, 2001, attack on the city.

On ​social media, at least four Republican members of Congress posted language viewed by many Muslim Americans and Democrats as Islamophobic.

In a Thursday post on X, Republican ‌Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama juxtaposed a photograph of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre with a March 8 photo of Mamdani hosting an “iftar” dinner to mark the holy month of Ramazan at New York City Hall, with the text, “less than 25 years ago,” and “The enemy is inside the gates.”

Tuberville has previously expressed anti-Muslim rhetoric online and on the Senate floor.

He did not respond to a request for comment. He ​later reiterated his comments in multiple subsequent X posts on Thursday.

The Islamic advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) added Tuberville to its list of anti-Muslim extremists in the United ​States, marking the first time it has designated a US senator as an anti-Muslim extremist.

Islamophobic incidents in 2025 reached a record high, according to ⁠a CAIR study issued this week.

Rep. Andy ​Ogles of Tennessee drew condemnation from Democrats and religious figures earlier this week when he said, “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” on X.

Ogles later doubled down on the comment, posting: “Muslims ​are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back,” beside a link to a news story about one of two men charged with federal terrorism-related crimes for allegedly igniting a homemade bomb at an anti-Islam protest outside Mamdani’s mansion in New York.

Authorities say the pair declared they were inspired by the Daesh group.

In this current session of Congress, Democrats have filed two censure resolutions against Ogles for his verbal attacks ​on Muslims, and specifically, Mamdani.

Ogles and said Mamdani should be “DEPORTED” and “subject to denaturalisation proceedings” after winning the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

Michigan Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar ​filed a censure resolution on Thursday that would remove Ogles from the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Congressman Ogles’ disgusting and bigoted words have no place anywhere in our country, let alone from a member of Congress. ‌His words incite ⁠hatred against millions of Muslim Americans,” Thanedar said in a statement.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, in comments to reporters earlier this week, declined to condemn Ogles’s remarks.

“The language that people use it’s different language than what I would use, but I think that’s a serious issue,” he said, referring to claims that Muslims are trying to impose Sharia law on the United States.

Installing Sharia in the US does not enjoy wide support among American Muslims and community leaders.

“Ironically, the only people trying ​to impose their religion on America are those ​politicians who seek to ban Muslims from ⁠our nation, who try to force public school teachers to read the Bible to their students, and who demand that our nation go to war in the Middle East to fulfill their end times prophecies,” CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said in a statement.

Using the same image of ​Mamdani as Tuberville did, Rep. Andrew Clyde from Georgia said on X on Thursday that Democrats “whine” about the separation of church and state ​when public officials post Christian ⁠images but “when it’s Islam, they welcome it.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas posted an image of the west side of the US Capitol with the words “Protect America. Ban Sharia.”

Roy and fellow Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self started the Sharia Free Caucus, a group of nearly 50 lawmakers dedicated to banning Sharia law and supporting legislation like the “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act” — whose Senate version was authored by Tuberville — that ⁠seeks to ​deny immigration benefits and deport any immigrant who advocates for imposing Sharia in a way that violates US law ​or constitutional rights.

Clyde, Ogles, Roy and Self did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said Tuberville’s comments amount to “mindless hate”.

There are roughly 4.5 million Muslim Americans, according to ​the 2020 US Religion Census.

“Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbours, mayors, and more,” Schumer wrote on X.