Groups urge tax collector to quit after post about Islam

A growing number of political organizations urged Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg to resign Monday, two days after he prompted an outcry with a controversial Facebook post that critics said stoked anti-Muslim sentiment.

“He has violated the fair and impartiality that his office is supposed to have,” said Paul Truman, president of the Young Democrats of Seminole County. “It’s Islamophobic. We’re not tolerating it anymore. We don’t want him representing the citizens of Seminole County.”

Greenberg issued a written statement but didn’t return calls for further comment.

“I’m not known to be politically correct,” he said in the statement. “I did not mean to offend anyone. Perhaps I should have cited my source of the original post to avoid the confusion.”

Greenberg touched off the controversy Saturday with a post he said he copied from Neal Boortz, a former Libertarian radio talk show host. That Boortz post on Twitter read: “Very simple question. Name just ONE society in the developed world that has benefited in ANY WAY from the introduction of more Muslims. Just one.”

Greenberg’s post was identical, but he added, “Asking for a friend.”

Although he later deleted the post, Greenberg defended himself by saying that “I don’t care what religion people are” and that he had no reason to apologize because he didn’t pose the question.

However, Greenberg continued

to spar with people criticizing him.

For example, Greg Coleman wrote: “You are an elected official and public servant. Either you take that seriously or you resign. You obviously cannot serve all of the residents of this county and therefore are unfit for office.”

Greenberg shot back: “Greg Coleman you know where you can go.”

Greenberg also reposted another Boortz tweet on Monday saying: “There is no such thing as Islamophobia. A phobia is an irrational or unreasonable fear. There’s no cancerphobia either. Same reason.”

At a news conference in front of the tax collector’s Lake Mary office, Imam Abdurrahman Sykes, president of the Islamic Society Leading American Muslims Peace Center, called Greenberg’s post divisive.

“These kinds of posts legitimize religious bigotry, exacerbate racial and religious animosity and feed into the anti-Muslim rhetoric that is not only dangerous to the very misperceived and vulnerable Muslim community, but to people of color and people of the entire Central Florida community,” Sykes said. “We need leaders intelligent enough to understand the impact of their words.”

Seminole County GOP chairwoman Kathryn Townsend said her party is for all residents.

“I think the Republican Party has a proven history of being the party of inclusion,” Townsend said. “The party supports its Republican elected officials. However, we are not responsible for their actions. Nor do their opinions necessarily represent the Republican Party.”

She added that Greenberg was “duly elected.”

“If the residents object to his behavior, they can voice that at the ballot box in 2020,” Townsend said, referring to when Seminole County voters will next cast ballots for tax collector. Greenberg, then a newcomer to politics, unseated longtime tax collector Ray Valdes in the 2016 GOP primary and then went on to win in November over a nominal write-in candidate.

Orange County Democratic chairman Wes Hodge also urged Greenberg to resign, saying the country was founded on the basis of religious freedom. He blasted Greenberg’s statement trying to justify the post.

“Hate has no home in our community,” Hodge said. “You cannot spread antiMuslim rhetoric and expect Muslims to be comfortable in his office. You can’t spread hate speech and then walk back and say: ‘Oh, my bad.’ ”

Representatives of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the state’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned Greenberg’s post and said in a written statement that the group is “investigating whether his Islamophobic ideology previously affected his work for the county’s Tax Collector’s Office.”

Wes Neuman, vice chairman of the Seminole County Democratic Party, said he regrets voting for Greenberg.

“I was really hoping that Joel Greenberg would be a positive change maker. But as it turns out he’s got some really rotten and vile views,” Neuman said. “He’s unfit for office.”