By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican U.S. Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that "the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one."
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican U.S. lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
"If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one," Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an "Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot."
Jeffries also called for Republicans - who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress - to hold Fine accountable.
"To ignore this is to accept and normalize it," Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said.
Fine's past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the U.S., labeling of Muslims as "terrorists" and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others.
Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the U.S. in recent years due to a range of factors including hardline immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel's war in Gaza on American society.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
