A Florida congressman is facing calls to resign over a social media post in which he said he preferred dogs over Muslims.
It was the latest disparaging remark about Muslims by Republican Rep. Andy Fine. A civil rights organization has labeled him an anti-Muslim extremist.
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On Sunday, Fine responded on X to a post from a Muslim activist who said dogs have a place in society, but not as pets. She later explained her post was remarking on the excessive dog waste she’s seen in New York City as the snow melts.
Fine wrote: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine’s comment was met with bipartisan condemnation.
Republican Aaron Baker, who is challenging Fine in an August primary, condemned the post and any forms of violence targeted against people of Jewish, Christian or Muslim faiths.
“Do you have any sense of morality,” Baker asked Fine in a post, using an expletive against the representative.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., described Fine’s comment as “one of the most disgusting statements that I have ever seen issued by an American official.”
“Resign now, you racist slob,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X.
Fine appeared on Newsmax and defended his comment and attacked his critics.
“People should know Democrats like AOC are saying, ‘We are going to get rid of your dogs,’” he said. “Americans need to keep that in mind when they go and vote in November.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who adopted a French bulldog puppy, has not proposed banning dogs.
“My post is in response to a major Muslim leader saying dogs should be forbidden from New York City because to some Muslims it bothers them,” Fine said. “Well, if they’re gonna make us choose between our dogs and them going home, the choice is easy.”
Muslim civil rights group declares Fine an anti-Muslim extremist
Fine won a special election for Florida’s 6th Congressional District in April 2025 after Rep. Mike Waltz accepted a position in the Trump administration.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization, said in a statement that Fine’s comments on Muslims and Palestinians have made him a “modern Klansman and Nazi all wrapped into one.”
The organization has condemned Fine for his comments since at least 2021, when he was a state legislator. CAIR’s Florida chapter requested a Jewish group to clarify their association with Fine after a series of disparaging posts he made against Palestinians and Muslims. In one post, he said “#BlowThemUp” in response to a question about Palestinians’ rights, according to an ethics complaint the group filed in Florida back in 2021.
CAIR gave Fine the anti-Muslim extremist label in June, saying he has “invoked Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian stereotypes and incited violence against Muslims and Palestinians.”
Fine is Jewish and has been vocal about his support for Israel.
Fine shared a video on Dec. 11 in which he suggested the way to deal with “mainstream Muslims” is destruction. His comments came during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on U.S.-Israel relations.
“I don’t know how you make peace with those who seek your destruction, I think you destroy them first,” he said in the video.
The next day, Fine said that CAIR affirmed his suspicions about “mainstream Muslims” seeking genocide of Christians and Jewish people. Fine has said he doesn’t have any familial ties to Israel, but has supported the country because it fights against “mainstream Islam.”
“They are simply angry that I am calling for us to fight back,” he wrote.
He posted on X in early February that the U.S. wouldn’t become the 58th country to have Sharia law. According to the Cato Institute, Sharia isn’t a law, it’s a framework for Muslims on how to pray, conduct oneself within a family and carry out business deals. Other religions have similar customs that followers are encouraged to adhere to such as Halakha for Orthodox Jewish people, the Ten Commandments for some Christian denominations, canon law for Catholics and the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline.
