Utah Republican Congressman Burgess Owens sparked controversy Friday after sharing an anti-Muslim video from an account on X/Twitter that frequently posts hateful White supremacist content.
The inflammatory video, which remained on Owens' profile for over 14 hours before being deleted, featured a woman making false and xenophobic claims about Islam and Western society.
The video promoted numerous false claims about Muslims and Islam, including the false assertion that the religion "doesn't even see rape as a crime" - a statement contradicted by Islamic law.
The speaker also claimed that "The UK and now America are sacrificing their wives and daughters for diversity credit."
The video continued with a string of inflammatory accusations against Muslim immigrants, claiming they "hate women, children, white people, America, and Western civilization."
The incident was puzzling because Owens, who is Black, has spent much of his career in Congress recounting his experiences with Jim Crow growing up in the South and accusing Democrats and the left of promoting racist policies.
Owens's office did not immediately respond to questions from Utah Political Watch. A source close to Owens claimed the repost was likely a mistake and not intentional.
This isn't Owens' first brush with extreme content. During his first run for Congress in 2020, he made several appearances on programs related to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
