NBC: “Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., prompted calls for his resignation from Democrats and a major Islamic civil rights group after suggesting in a social media post that he’d choose dogs over Muslims.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine posted to the social media platform X on Sunday.
Shortly afterward, he added a photo of a post from Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, in which she called dogs “unclean” and said that “NYC is coming to Islam.” Kiswani later told NBC News in an email she made the comment satirically.
Fine wrote in the follow-up post, “For context, this is the leader of one of the key mainstream Muslim groups that supported Mamdani,” referring to Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s new mayor.
Fine’s initial post sparked a parade of criticism and a handful of calls for him to resign.”