“I don’t want people doing my pork that won’t eat it, let alone hope I go to hell for eating pork chops,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Steve King singles out Somali Muslims over pork The Iowa congressman says they shouldn’t work in his district’s meat-packing plants because they won’t eat pig products.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Friday that he doesn’t want Somali Muslims working at meat-packing plants in his district because they want consumers of pork to be sent to hell.

In a Breitbart News radio interview, the eight-term congressman, known for his inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric, said his views were shaped by a conversation with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), whom he called “the lead Muslim in Congress.”


King said Ellison told him that Muslims would require “a special dispensation” from an imam in order to be able to handle pork in one of his district’s meat-packing plants. “The rationale is that if infidels are eating this pork, [the Muslims] are not eating it,” King said. “So as long as they’re preparing this pork for infidels, it helps send them to hell and it must make Allah happy.”

“I don’t want people doing my pork that won’t eat it, let alone hope I go to hell for eating pork chops,” he concluded.

Ellison’s office declined to comment on King’s interpretation of the Minnesota congressman’s remarks.

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King said he approached Ellison about the issue because meat-packing plants in his district had informed him they hoped to hire Somalis to work in their facilities. “And I say, ‘Well, Somali Muslims, will they cut pork?’” King recalled of his conversation with the plant leaders. “They looked at each other and said, ‘We don’t know.’”

King has drawn attention for frequently flirting with fringe, racist political elements. Earlier this week, he retweeted a known British white supremacist’s warning about immigration.

King’s commentary on pork consumption and Islam doesn’t stop at his district’s edge. Last week, he slammed Sweden, which he said “capitulated to Halal” when the organizers of an international soccer tournament there decided against serving pork to accommodate a large number of Muslim players.

“I draw the line here and, if need be, will fight for freedom of choice — in our diets,” he tweeted. “Iowa’s 4th Congressional District is the #1 Pork district in America. No takin’ bacon off our tables.”