Rep. Randy Fine Labeled an ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’ by CAIR

Congressman Randy Fine has been derided as an ‘anti-Muslim extremist’ in a statement recently released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The group has called on the U.S. House of Representatives to censure Fine over his comments on the Gaza war.

Fine represents all of Flagler County plus parts of Volusia County within Florida’s 6th congressional district. A Republican, he was elected on April 1st to fill out the remainder of Michael Waltz’s term after he tapped for a role in the Trump administration.

Dating back to his days in the Florida legislature, Fine has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel and their global interests. He has made a series of charged statements against the cause of the Palestinian people and the terrorist group Hamas.

Randy Fine’s Controversial Rhetoric

The latest statement made by Fine was in response to an inquiry to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Having recently advocated for a military action in Gaza akin to the U.S. nuclear attack on Japan during World War II, Fine responded to dispel characterizations that he advocated for a literal nuclear strike on the region.

“Well, I think it speaks to the importance of the only end of the conflict is complete and total surrender by those who support Muslim terror,” Fine said on Fox News last month. “In World War II we did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis. We did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture, and it needs to be defeated.”

The News-Journal also interviewed Fine at a recent Memorial Day ceremony, in which he said that the ‘Muslim-terror media’ was responsible for people interpreting reading into his allusion to nuclear war. AskFlagler also reached out to Fine for clarification, but did not receive a response. It was then that he made the statement CAIR is calling racist: “I recognize that half of the people in Gaza are married to their cousins, so you’re going to find a lot of people with mental defects,” he said. “But you’ve got to have a mental defect to interpret the comment that way.”

Multiple of Randy Fine’s own staffers revealed, under the condition of anonymity, that they were alarmed by Fine’s words and that they believed he’d suggested a nuclear strike on Gaza.

CAIR’s Response

“With yet another racist attack on Palestinians and their culture, Representative Fine again shows that he is unfit to serve the people of Florida in Congress,” CAIR’s statement said. “We call on the House of Representatives to censure Fine for his repeated displays of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim bigotry.”

The group also pointed to a number of other statements on Palestine and Gaza made by Fine which have brought him scrutiny. He has called pro-Palestinian representatives of Muslim faith “Muslim terrorist[s]”, and has told the Palestinian people to “eat rockets” and “#StarveAway”. Once shown a photo of a deceased infant in Gaza rubble and asked how he sleeps at night, Fine said “Quite well actually! Thanks for the pic!” Asked about those quotations and other comments during his campaign, Fine has consistently stood by his stances and word choices.