He's Sikh, not Muslim: GOP Rep. Mary Miller's bigoted blunder goes viral
A House invocation exposed religious ignorance and racism at the highest levels of Congress
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On Friday morning, when the U.S. House began its work day, it was greeted with an invocation from Giani Surinder Singh, who heads up the Gurdwara South Jersey Sikh Center in Vineland, New Jersey.
His remarks were inclusive and in line with what most other guest chaplains say when they have this opportunity. Singh asked for the “universal creator God” to keep His “divine hand over… this House.” He called on members to use sound judgment and love and to “create a more peaceful world.”
Like all other invocation speakers, he was invited by a member of Congress: In this case, Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who told a reporter, “What makes America special is that we can honor different these traditions while staying true to our own. I’ll always stand for that kind of mutual respect.” Classy comment. It also marks the second time a New Jersey Congress member has invited a Sikh leader to give an invocation. That ground was first broken in 2023, with the help of Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross.
Because Singh isn’t Christian, you would expect some Republican extremists to be upset about this. But Illinois Republican Rep. Mary Miller—one of the dumber, more racist Republicans in her party—managed to botch her criticism of the invocation.
In a now-deleted tweet, Miller called it “troubling” that a Muslim “was allowed to lead prayer” in the House. “This should have never been allowed to happen,” she added, because “America was founded as a Christian nation.”
There’s so much wrong in so little space…
America isn’t, and never has been, a Christian nation. Entire books have been written about that, historians share that understanding, and the only people who claim otherwise are David Barton-esque liars who spend their careers lying to other Christians and telling them whatever they want to hear about the Founding Fathers.
I don’t believe Congress should have invocations at all, but if they do, the idea of inviting people from all kinds of religious backgrounds shouldn’t be controversial. It’s the least Congress can do if they want to keep up with this pointless charade. Especially when they have no problem inviting actual hate-preachers to do the honor.
But most damningly, Singh isn’t Muslim! He’s just brown. And Hitler-praising Mary Miller, who once said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a “victory for white life,” saw a brown man speaking and immediately jumped to the conclusion that he must be a Muslim and he must therefore be evil. She doesn’t understand that Islam and Sikhism are two entirely different religions. She doesn’t understand how extremists can hijack a faith. She just tweeted it out because she’s very, very dumb. (And even if he was Muslim, why would it matter?! That invocation wasn’t controversial!)
And then she quickly deleted that comment, replaced “Muslim” with “Sikh,” and tweeted it out again, failing to correct all the other mistakes.
She correctly identified his religion… but everything else is still batshit crazy! Why shouldn’t a Sikh person be allowed to lead the invocation prayer? What harm was done?!
She fixed one bit of stupidity but left all the rest of it in. Because Mary Miller’s purpose in life is to make Marjorie Taylor Greene look smart.
If there’s any consolation here, it’s that she soon deleted that tweet as well… and her own colleagues lashed out against her. GOP Rep. David Valadao said he was “troubled by my colleague's remarks” and that Sikhs are “valued and respected members of our communities, yet they continue to face harassment and discrimination.” After falsely claiming that “our nation's founding was indeed shaped by Judeo-Christian values,” Rep. Nick LaLota said the invocation “doesn’t violate the Constitution, offend my Catholic faith, or throttle my support for Israel.” (No clue what that last bit has to do with anything.)
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was more blunt: “It’s deeply troubling that such an ignorant and hateful extremist is serving in the United States Congress.” Rep. Eric Swalwell was even more blunt than that: “They’re not just mean… They’re fucking morons.” Humanist Rep. Jared Huffman took a different approach: “I often say that I serve in Congress with some of the greatest minds of the 18th century. With Rep. Miller I may need to take it back a few more centuries.”
Miller has still not apologized for her bigotry.
The Sikh Coalition argued that deleting the tweet(s) wasn’t enough. She needs to do much, much more. They said:
Such hateful rhetoric is not new to our community; it is as tired as it is unacceptable. Despite this, Sikhs will not be deterred from participating in public or civic life. Our community has a long history in IL, including in the district that Rep. Miller represents.
What’s disturbing is that none of this is new. In 2007, Hindu leader Rajan Zed delivered an invocation in the U.S. Senate. The American Family Association urged members to complain to their representatives about it and a handful of Christians staged a vocal protest as Zed spoke.
Conservative Christians believe neutrality is persecution, and whenever they see a non-Christian doing something they believe only they should be allowed to do, they flip out. They believe freedom of religion no longer applies. Just look at what hate-preacher Greg Locke, always eager for attention, chimed in to say: “A Sikh chanting to a demon IS NOT freedom of religion. It’s Satanism and DOES NOT belong in a Nation FOUNDED ON CHRISTIANITY.” And “theobro” pastor Dale Partridge, learning nothing from the backlash, made the same mistake of treating all brown people alike and claimed “Hinduism is demon worship” (?!?)…
They really are all this dumb.
If anything, this whole situation is more evidence for why the unnecessary ritual needs to be abolished entirely. If members of Congress can’t do their jobs without listening to a formal prayer first, they shouldn’t have run for office. As Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a statement, “This episode is a clear reminder about why government-sanctioned prayers in Congress—or any state legislatures, city councils, and school boards—are divisive, unwise and un-American.”
Quick side note: This controversy is a reminder that you’ll never hear an atheist deliver a secular invocation in the House no matter that person’s qualifications. There was literally a lawsuit over this in 2016 but it was dismissed in 2019 after the House Chaplain clarified that House rules “require a religious prayer.”
As usual, a Christian manages to demonstrate the fact that they don't really believe in religious freedom.
Our Constitution specifically bans religious tests for holding public office in the United States. That's about as far from being founded as a Christian nation as it gets. As usually happens, she makes a better case for atheism than Christianity. The real question is, why do they have invocations at all? It isn't as if a reasonable case could be made for those prayers ever having made better people out of the members of Congress.