An official from Florida is facing increasing criticism for calling the first Muslim Congresswoman a "danger" who might "blow up" the US Capitol.
Annabelle Lima-Taub, a city commissioner in south Florida, signed an online petition on a crowdsourced site known as "We The People" to have Rashida Tlaib removed from office and left a scathing message with it.
"Proudly signed," Ms Lima-Taub wrote, according to a screen grab of the post. "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." She later deleted the post after a local newspaper asked her about it.
The petition garnered more than 100,000 signatures, which requires that the White House respond to it.
Ms Tlaib, who is also the first Palestinian-American to enter Congress, has gained notoriety for criticising US President Donald Trump. She said last month that she wanted to "impeach that motherf-----".
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Ms Tlaib lashed out at the official on Twitter. “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.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America's top Muslim body, called for Ms Lima-Taub to step down.
“CAIR-Florida strongly condemns the disgraceful racist and Islamophobic statements published by Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub,” Wilfredo Ruiz, the CAIR Florida chapter ’s communication director, said in a statement. “Her un-American, xenophobic statements establish that she is unfit to hold the Commissioner’s seat.”
Her colleagues on the commission at Hallandale Beach, a community of around 40,000, criticised her remarks.
“Commissioner Lima-Taub’s behavior is indefensible and a black eye for Hallandale Beach,” said Michele Lazarow, another Hallandale commissioner, according to the Florida-based Sun Sentinel newspaper.
Ms Lima-Taub was born in Israel but grew up in New York, according to her biography on the community's website.
