House Democrats demand ethics probe of GOP lawmaker’s Islamophobic comments

Democratic leaders in the Arizona House of Representatives have filed an ethics complaint against Kingman Republican John Gillette, after he called Muslims “f***ing savages” and posted a series of Islamophobic comments on social media calling members of the faith “terrorists” from “sh*t hole countries” intent on destroying America. 

“His written and verbal statements are beyond offensive, dangerous, and egregiously unbecoming of an elected official,” says the complaint, which was signed by Democratic Reps. Nancy Gutierrez, Quantá Crews, Stacey Travers and Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos. “Accordingly, we are asking that the Ethics Committee convene immediately to investigate Rep. Gillette’s behavior, including bringing him before the Ethics Committee to answer for his hateful rhetoric, and to recommend potential disciplinary actions.” 

Since the beginning of September, Gillette has made a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, aimed at the Muslim faith. Many have been laced with profanity, and the Kingman Republican has insisted that Muslim immigrants are “savages” because they are pushing “Sharia law” onto Americans.

In a subsequent interview with the Arizona Mirror, he defended his comments and said that Muslim immigrants were “f***ing savages.” Since the initial story about Gillette’s comments was published, the lawmaker has doubled down on his comments in multiple posts on X. 

Gillette did not respond to the Mirror’s request for comment about the ethics complaint, nor did Lupe Diaz, R-Benson, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee.  

Gutierrez said the Democrats have also not heard anything from Diaz, but they are hopeful that their complaint will get a hearing. 

“Rep. Gillette dehumanized (Muslims) and demonstrates his bigotry against an entire religious group, which constitutes about 1% of the population in this state,” the complaint says about Gillette’s comments. “Indeed, Arizona has one of the largest Muslim populations in America.”

The complaint also takes issue with comments Gillette made to the Mirror in which he said Muslims do not properly “assimilate” to American culture. 

“Does he want them to renounce their sincerely held religious beliefs? Doesn’t the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protect and honor Muslim Arizonans’ rights to practice their religion? Does Rep. Gillette believe that Muslim Arizonans should look like him? Does the color of their skin offend him? He should be called before the Ethics Committee to answer these questions and explain to the public what his words intended and to take responsibility for the pain he has caused the community, and the potential danger in which he placed our Muslim constituents, with such hateful and inciteful words,” the complaint says. 

“We acknowledge that this is a time in American history when rhetoric is heated and emotions are high, but that is absolutely no excuse for an elected official to disparage and insult his own constituents and others around the state,” the Democrats added in their complaint. “His vile comments could have very real, profound, and potentially dangerous impacts on people in this state. Rep. Gillette’s pattern of hateful conduct is dishonorable and clearly unbecoming of a member of the Arizona House of Representatives.” 

Arizona has a long history with Islamophobia. 

In the aftermath of the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi was killed at the gas station he owned in Mesa by a man who was allegedly looking for revenge for the attacks and saw Sodhi’s Sikh attire as an indication of him being a member of the Muslim faith. Sikhs practice an unrelated religion.

The man also shot at a Lebanese-American gas clerk, who was unharmed, before finally driving back to a local bar to brag about the murder.  

In 2014, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which was led at the time by now Arizona Supreme Court Justice Bill Montgomery, hosted a training seminar by a man who had previously claimed that former CIA director John Brennan is secretly a Muslim. 

It later came out that Montgomery spent $40,000 to bring the speaker, who had admitted to sexual encounters with a confidential informant while he was working with the FBI. 

Four years later, Arizona Republicans refused to condemn hosting a similar conspiracy theorist who claimed that Muslims want to take over the country. 

In 2015, Jon Ritzheimer earned notoriety for wearing a shirt that said “F**k Islam” while walking in front of a Phoenix mosque, ultimately leading a protest in front of it. The protest included a contest to see who could draw the Prophet Mohammed the best, an act that was intentionally disrespectful to the Muslim faith. 

Ritzheimer went on to be involved in a litany of extremist activities, including being investigated for calling for the arrest of a Democratic senator and for his involvement in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge standoff, which he was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to.   

The city of Kingman in 2018 vowed to change after comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical Showtime series “Who Is America?” showed members of the town reacting poorly to a fictional proposed mosque in their town, with one man saying during the segment that the mosque would foster “terrorism” and another saying Black people aren’t welcome in the town. 

In 2018, two women who were members of a local extremist group made national headlines for vandalizing and stealing from a Tempe mosque.

***CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller was involved in organizing Jon Ritzheimer’s 2015 protest at a Phoenix mosque. Although she supported the event, and it was inspired by a mosque protest she organized in Texas, she was not involved in its planning. That paragraph has been removed from the story.