Mace Faces Backlash Over Muslim Office Remarks

Rep. Nancy Mace’s comments on Muslims in public life sparked a fast-moving political backlash after the South Carolina Republican said that every Muslim holding public office in America is a threat to the country. The controversy centered on a series of posts on X that drew immediate condemnation from Democrats and fresh criticism of Mace’s rhetoric.

In a Friday post, Mace wrote that “every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic.” She added, “We refuse to be silent.” In a separate exchange responding to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Mace wrote, “Islam must be confronted and Islam must be removed from civil society in the US.” Jayapal called the remarks “absolutely disgusting and dangerous” and urged Republicans to denounce what she described as blatant Islamophobia. She also said she would stand with Muslim communities across America.

The criticism did not stop there. California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is running for the U.S. House in San Francisco, said Mace was again demonizing Muslims and trying to strip them of full citizenship. Owen Jones, a British writer who describes himself on X as a socialist and antifascist, also weighed in after sharing Mace’s post. He argued that if a Republican member of Congress spoke that way about Jewish Americans, the reaction would be far harsher, and said Islamophobia was rising in the United States. Mace later reposted Jones’ comments and stood by her own message, writing that concern about being blown up, stabbed, or rammed by a car by a radical Islamist would make someone an Islamophobe only if that is how the term is defined.