Republican Congresswoman and prominent conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was stripped of her committee assignments for spreading deranged conspiracy theories and endorsing the execution of her now-colleagues on social media before her election.
But that didn't deter House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California from appointing her to a new "Future of American Freedoms" task force, led by far-right Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The goal of the task force is supposedly focused on
"...defending foundational American freedoms, including the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and the right to bear arms."
But Greene's record on the freedom of worship comes up short if that worship doesn't entail Christianity.
In a video that resurfaced this past January, Greene—then a private citizen—showed up to Capitol Hill and marched through the halls of Congress with the goal of badgering Congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan—the first Muslim women elected to Congress—to swear in on a Christian Bible. She falsely claimed their Oaths of Office were invalid because they swore in on the Quran.
Watch the video below.
Since we're doing old videos of Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing people, here's her from before she was elected, in Feb 2019, turning up in Congress to try & get @IlhanMN & @RashidaTlaib to retake their oaths on a Bible & not a Quran:\n(h/t @ehananoki)pic.twitter.com/YMr7InKYqZ— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1611773449
Greene said in the video:
"We have the Bible. We're gonna talk about how to swear in on the Bible with them and let them know what our law says. That you can't swear in on the Quran."
She and her cohorts went on to make a number of Islamophobic statements before ultimately failing to confront the Congresswomen.
But with news of Greene's appointment to a task force focused on freedom of worship, Congresswoman Omar reminded Twitter of the incident.
Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to force me and @RashidaTlaib to retake our oaths of office on the Christian Bible instead of the Quran, she doesn\u2019t believe in religious freedom or the constitution. \n\nThis is who the GOP wants on the task force overseeing our \u201cfreedom to worship\u201d??https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1409918449283964929\u00a0\u2026— Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan Omar) 1624993764
People joined her in opposition to the appointment.
Freedom for her and her cohorts, not for everyone else.https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— Abuz (@Abuz) 1624999486
MTG shouldn\u2019t be in Congress.https://twitter.com/ilhanmn/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— Tammy Nemetz (@Tammy Nemetz) 1624998618
The @GOP believes in freedom of the Christian religion, unless of course you support LGBTQ rights.https://twitter.com/ilhanmn/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— P&R History (@P&R History) 1624997959
Religious freedom was understood by our founders, yet many people still don't get the value of acceptance of others beliefs.https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— Dylan Broten (@Dylan Broten) 1624996613
Marjorie Taylor Greene @mtgreenee is a disastrous joke. Is she reflecting the new face of the Republican Party?https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— Hamid M. Rowaihy (Abu Feras) (@Hamid M. Rowaihy (Abu Feras)) 1624994964
Well, their version of Freedom to Worship means "FREEDOM TO WORSHIP AS WE DO, *OR ELSE*."\n\nWhich come to think of it explains the modern GQP in a nutshell.https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1409952158712307719\u00a0\u2026— Rachel-Anne "Queer Mexican/Blackfoot" Bach (@Rachel-Anne "Queer Mexican/Blackfoot" Bach) 1624994802
In fact, the newfound task force was slammed across social media.
Republicans American freedoms; the freedom of [hate] speech, freedom of [evangelical Christians only] worship, and the right to bear arms [especially if planning to attack the Capitol and US Constitution.]https://twitter.com/andrewsolender/status/1409918449283964929\u00a0\u2026— Idealist_me (@Idealist_me) 1624999478
Since they know nothing about these things, this should be really fun.https://twitter.com/andrewsolender/status/1409918449283964929\u00a0\u2026— Lauren Down South (@Lauren Down South) 1624997578
This is the GOP drumming up noise for elections by creating fake committees that do nothing but gaslight\u2026 it\u2019s mini Benghazi style to counter the 1/6 select Committee.https://twitter.com/andrewsolender/status/1409918449283964929\u00a0\u2026— Madeline Donohue (@Madeline Donohue) 1624996851
In addition to the Future of American Freedoms task force, McCarthy announced the formation of six other task forces ranging from "American Security" to "China Accountability."