--- ---  # Andy Ogles Says Muslims Don’t Belong in America. Thousands Live in His District  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Mar 12, 2026 10:00 AM UTC  Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who has made anti-Muslim statements, represents a community known as Little Kurdistan. Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who has made anti-Muslim statements, represents a community known as Little Kurdistan.Heather Diehl—Getty Images  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Mar 12, 2026 10:00 AM UTC Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee represents one of the largest Muslim populations in the American South. This week, he said Muslims “don’t belong in American society.” His comment, posted on [social media](https://x.com/RepOgles/status/2031002097135599717) along with the assertion that “pluralism is a lie,” reverberated quickly across the country, but was especially jarring for the tens of thousands of Muslim constituents in his Middle Tennessee district. In neighborhoods south of Nashville, from Antioch to Murfreesboro, Muslim residents responded with a mix of anger and exhaustion, as well as concern that such ideas coming from their very own Congressman could fuel harassment and violence at a moment when tensions are already running high. “He is trying to gain relevance through attacking our community in the election cycle,” says Sabina Mohyuddin, an American-born Muslim who lives in the district and leads the Tennessee-based American Muslim Advisory Council. She estimated that roughly 30,000 Muslims live within the Fifth Congressional District alone. Ogles’s district stretches south of Nashville into more rural and conservative counties including Maury, Lewis and Marshall—areas that voted heavily for President Donald Trump. But it also contains diverse parts of Davidson County, where immigrant communities have grown rapidly in recent decades. Nashville is home to what is often described as the largest Kurdish diaspora in the U.S., centered around an area widely known as Little Kurdistan. “He's never spent a day of his life there,” claimed Maryam Abolfazli, an Iranian-American Democrat who ran against Ogles in the 2024 election, losing by 17 percentage points. She described Ogles’s comments as “pure evil” and not representative of the district as a whole. “I was born and raised here, and that kind of Ku-Klux-Klan-spewing-hatred-from-a-podium vibe is not us.” Ogles has continued in recent days to intensify his attacks on Islam and Muslim Americans. After posting that Muslims do not belong in American society, he followed up with dozens of additional messages declaring that “America is a product of English Christian culture” and that “Multiculturalism is NOWHERE in the Constitution,” suggesting Muslims should live in one of the world’s “57 Islamic countries,” and calling for deportations of even naturalized Muslim Americans. “We must not cower to these barbarians,” he said in one post. “Paperwork doesn't magically make you American,” he said in another, adding that “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.” Ogles has also proposed legislation that would effectively ban immigration by Muslims, modeled on travel restrictions enacted during the first Trump Administration. Ogles’s office did not respond to a request for comment. At a news conference this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to condemn the remarks, saying only that he would have used “different language.” Ogles, currently running for his third term in Congress, has been endorsed by Trump. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether that endorsement still stands in light of Ogles’s comments on Muslims. Ogles still has to get through an Aug. 6 Republican primary against Charlie Hatcher, a former Tennessee agriculture commissioner and dairy farmer. Hatcher did not respond to a request for comment on Ogles’s remarks about Muslims. Four Democrats are also running for the seat, which the Democratic National Committee has identified as a potential flip opportunity. Yet for now, residents say their lawmaker’s words leave them questioning whether he represents them at all. “It feels like we have somebody in office who doesn’t have our back,” Mohyuddin says. ## Surge in Anti-Muslim Statements From Republicans Ogles’s comments have been part of a broader rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric among Republicans, as the party increasingly turns its attention from immigration at the southern border to warnings about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States. In Texas, Republican campaigns have run ads warning about “radical Islam,” and activists have rallied around fears that Muslim communities are growing too quickly in the Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs. In Congress, dozens of Republicans have posted about Muslims or Islam this year, with the vast majority of those messages casting the religion in a negative light. Republican Congressman Randy Fine, who represents a central Florida district, recently suggested in a social media post that he would choose dogs over Muslims. A group of Republican lawmakers this year also created a “Sharia-Free America Caucus,” now claiming more than 45 members from more than 20 states. The caucus has framed its mission as preventing the spread of Islamic law in the United States—a long-running talking point among conservative activists, despite little evidence that such a threat exists. Civil rights advocates have decried such efforts as racist dog whistles that are fueling a broader surge in anti-Muslim hostility. The Council on American-Islamic Relations recorded 8,683 complaints nationwide in 2025—the highest annual total since the group began tracking incidents nearly three decades ago. “When this rhetoric rises, then we see increases in Islamophobia, increases in bullying, increases in workplace discrimination, increases in threats to mosques,” Mohyuddin said. ## ‘Fear of Mamdani’ When she ran against Ogle in 2024, Abolfazli says she did not hear him express the same sweeping condemnation of Muslims. Her theory as to his sudden shift centers on [Zohran Mamdani](https://time.com/7331192/zohran-mamdani-wins-nyc-mayor-race/), the Muslim Mayor of New York City, whose rise has been seized upon by right-wing commentators and some Republican lawmakers. “I think it’s the fear of Mamdani, like someone who so brilliantly ascended to one of the biggest jobs in our country,” she says. Last year, as Mamdani emerged as the frontrunner to be the leader of the country’s largest city, Ogles urged the Justice Department to consider whether Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and later became a U.S. citizen, should face denaturalization proceedings. Ogles again this week [called](https://x.com/RepOgles/status/2031016514204160017) for his deportation. Muslim leaders in Middle Tennessee say their community has long navigated cycles of suspicion and backlash. Mohyuddin pointed to a contentious episode in 2010, when the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro sought to build a mosque on newly purchased land. Though the project was ultimately approved by local officials, it became a flashpoint during a heated election year. Protesters gathered at the site, vandalism occurred, and lawsuits were filed arguing that Islam should not be recognized as a religion. “That had a devastating impact on the community,” Mohyuddin said, recalling the bullying Muslim students experienced at school. For Mohyuddin, Ogles’s recent remarks feel like part of the same pattern. “Of course we’re going to speak out,” Mohyuddin says. “But the question is—who else will speak out? Who will say publicly that Muslims belong here?” “We were here long before Andy Ogles was elected,” she adds. “And we will continue to be here.” Anti-Muslim Congressman Has Thousands of Muslims in His District ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/11/andy-ogles-says-muslims-don-t-belong-in-america-thousands-live-in-his-district/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/11/andy-ogles-says-muslims-don-t-belong-in-america-thousands-live-in-his-district/"},"headline":"Andy Ogles Says Muslims Don’t Belong in America. Thousands Live in His District","datePublished":"2026-03-12T10:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-19T07:44:53.627Z","description":"Rep. 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