A Muslim civil rights group and different religion teams on Friday referred to as for for Democratic state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz to resign following a social media submit that appeared to again a message the group branded as Islamophobic.
Feigenholtz on Friday apologized for her response to a submit on X from Mosab Hassan Yousef, a critic of Hamas and Islam, who wrote that “Westerners who reward Islam are bootlickers.”
“In the event that they love Islam and Muslims, why don’t they transfer to an Islamic nation and stick their heads within the grime a number of occasions a day for enlightenment,” Yousef mentioned in a submit that went up on Monday.
“MHY… you’re one badass reality teller,” Feigenholtz replied the identical day.
Her reply has since been deleted and on Friday she referred to as it a “mistake.” Feigenholtz recommended her submit was made in error and mentioned she does “not subscribe to or help any inflammatory remarks made on the submit the place my remark appeared.”
Ahmed Rehab, government director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, mentioned the senator’s apology was “insulting our intelligence.”
Feigenholtz’s submit was “horrible, offensive and racist,” Rehab mentioned at a information convention at CAIR’s Loop places of work, the place leaders from spiritual and civic teams together with Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago and the Muslim Civic Coalition joined within the name for the senator’s resignation.
Rehab described Yousef as “knowledgeable Islamophobe.”
Senate President Don Harmon’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday morning about whether or not any motion can be taken in opposition to Feigenholtz, who’s vice chair of the highly effective Senate Appropriations Committee and chair of the Monetary Establishments Committee.
Feigenholtz, who’s Jewish, was amongst state elected officers together with Gov. JB Pritzker who earlier this week referred to as for the resignation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s faculty board president for antisemitic and in any other case controversial social media postings. The Rev. Mitchell Johnson resigned his CPS submit on Thursday
“Our expectations should be constant for all our public officers,” Dilara Sayeed of the Muslim Civic Coalition mentioned at Friday’s information convention.
State Reps. Lilian Jimenez of Chicago and Abdelnasser Rashid of Bridgeview additionally appeared at CAIR’s information convention and criticized the state senator’s submit, though neither explicitly referred to as for her to resign.
Jimenez famous that she spoke out earlier this week in opposition to anti-Puerto Rican feedback made at a rally for former President Donald Trump, and mentioned she was on the Friday information convention for a similar causes.
“Phrases spur actions, and so immediately we’re right here once more as a result of the phrases that have been spoken,” Jimenez mentioned.
In an announcement from Feigenholtz’s workplace Thursday, she recommended that her reply to Yousef was supposed as a response to his latest handle to the European Union Parliament during which he criticized Hamas.
On Friday, she merely mentioned she “made a mistake and, in consequence, I shared a message I don’t imagine in. It was by no means my intention to answer to — not to mention amplify — that particular person’s inflammatory remarks.”
Feigenholtz, who represents a district on Chicago’s North Facet, shouldn’t be up for reelection this yr. She served within the Illinois Home of Representatives for greater than twenty years earlier than being elected to the state Senate in 2020.
