{"id":19800,"date":"2026-03-09T16:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-gop-rep-andy-ogles-says-muslims-dont-belong-in-america\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T16:16:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:16:50","slug":"tennessee-gop-rep-andy-ogles-says-muslims-dont-belong-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tennessee-gop-rep-andy-ogles-says-muslims-dont-belong-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles says Muslims \u2018don\u2019t belong\u2019 in America"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Rep. Andy Ogles said on Monday that Muslims have no place in America, an Islamophobic attack from a sitting member of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuslims don&#8217;t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,\u201d the Tennessee Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepOgles\/status\/2031002097135599717?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">posted Monday morning on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is not the first bigoted social media post Ogles has made.<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepOgles\/status\/2029660611374612518?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">has also said<\/a> that \u201cAmerica and Islam are incompatible,\u201d and has introduced legislation to halt immigration from Muslim-majority nations.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Ogles referred Blue Light News to an interview the member of Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/maga-hardliner-pushes-ban-immigration-islamic-countries-adversaries-texas-shooting\" target=\"_blank\">did with Fox News<\/a> following a shooting in Austin, Texas, in which he said that \u201cmass Islamic immigration, legal or illegal, has transformed America and brought destructive consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ogles\u2019 post comes as Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/03\/09\/house-gop-retreat-trump-midterms-00817213\" target=\"_blank\">gather in Florida for their annual retreat<\/a> and could serve as a distraction as the party seeks to hash out its agenda ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>Spokespeople for the offices of the top three House Republicans \u2014 Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer \u2014 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Ogles\u2019 legislation, the Halt Immigration from Countries with Inadequate Verification Capabilities Act, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act by refusing admission to immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries like Iran, Libya and Syria. North Korea, Venezuela and Yemen are also named in the bill, which does make exceptions for U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The bill, which is unlikely to become law, has already garnered the support of Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepFine\/status\/2029676505366712576?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">who said<\/a> \u201cwe must protect America from jihadists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fine has also come under fire for Islamophobic remarks recently.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the Florida Republican faced criticism for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepFine\/status\/2023161539897720931?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">implying that dogs were preferable to Muslims<\/a>. At least one Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RoKhanna\/status\/2023447690508730807?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">called for Fine to be censured<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Fine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Andy Ogles said on Monday that Muslims have no place in America, an Islamophobic attack from a sitting member of Congress. \u201cMuslims don&#8217;t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,\u201d the Tennessee Republican posted Monday morning on X. It is not the first bigoted social media post Ogles has made. He has also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}