Rashida Tlaib criticized a Florida official who said she might 'blow up Capitol Hill'

• Florida commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub said in a Facebook post that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is Muslim, "is a danger" who might "become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill."
• Tlaib hit back at Florida commissioner Anabelle-Lima Taub, saying her rhetoric is "embraced by President Donald Trump."
• Lima-Taub deleted her Facebook post. Her comments were condemned by various Muslim advocacy groups, and the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked for her resignation.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib criticized  Florida commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, after Lima-Taub suggested Tlaib was a potential terrorist who might blow up congress.

In a Twitter post Tuesday, Tlaib, who is Muslim, said Lima-Taub's comments echo commentary from President Donald Trump and Republican officials.

"This sort of hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric doesn’t happen in a vacuum — this President embraced it and Republicans have happily gone along with it," she wrote.

On January 8, Lima-Taub, a city commissioner in Hallandale Beach, shared a Facebook post with a petition asking for Tlaib's resignation that circulated after Tlaib called for Trump's impeachment.

"Proudly signed," Lima-Taub wrote on her personal Facebook page. "A Hamas-loving anti-Semite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill."

The post has since been deleted, but it drew widespread attention on Monday, after the Florida Sun-Sentinel published a screenshot. Tlaib has been a lightning rod in Congress in part because of her unapologetically liberal positions and because of her background as a Palestinian-American Muslim. Lima-Taub herself was born in Israel.

Muslim advocacy groups condemned Lima-Taub's remarks, and the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for her resignation.

"CAIR-Florida strongly condemns the disgraceful racist and Islamophobic statements published by Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub," Wilfredo Ruiz, the chapter's communication director, told the Washington Post. "Her un-American, xenophobic statements establish that she is unfit to hold the Commissioner’s seat."

Lima-Taub, who is also a longtime animal rights activist, has mostly posted about a fundraiser for an animal rescue operation on Facebook since her deleted post about Tlaib. She didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

• Read more:
• Nancy Pelosi defended Rashida Tlaib after the freshman congresswoman said Democrats would 'impeach the motherf---er' in reference to Trump
• Trump says Rep. Rashida Tlaib 'dishonored' her family, disrespected US by saying 'impeach the motherf---er'
• Women are sharing #TweetYourThobe after Rep. Rashida Tlaib wears traditional Palestinian dress for swearing-in ceremony

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