Lorie Shaull
Representative Ilhan Omar has faced harassment and death threats since President Trump tweeted a doctored video of Omar discussing 9/11.
Racism is often exposed when two people of different races do the same thing but get treated very differently—like when the nation’s first black President is also the first one expected to show a birth certificate.
The latest politician of color to get special treatment is U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who is African American and a proud hijab-wearing Muslim woman.
Every word that comes out of Omar’s mouth is tested in a lab for traces of terrorism, anti-Christian sentiments, and general uppityness.
Every word that comes out of Omar’s mouth is tested in a lab for traces of terrorism, anti-Christian sentiments, and general uppityness.
That is what the sleuths at the Daily Caller did when they reviewed Omar’s recent address to the Council on American Islamic Relations, which has the ominous acronym, CAIR. Thus they came to discover that at one point during the twenty-minute speech Omar had referred, in passing, to the terrorists of 9/11 as “some people” that “did something.”
Gotcha!
Instantly, flames began to burst out of rightwing outrage silos. On Friday night, President Donald Trump mainstreamed the line of attack by posting a video of Omar repeatedly saying “some people did something” and then showing gruesome images of the 9/11 attack.
The next day, Trump retweeted someone calling Omar a “sick monster.” On Tuesday, Trump continued his attack saying, “She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad” and called the former Americorps member “unpatriotic.” All this has, predictably, led to numerous death threats against Omar and other Muslim lawmakers.
The extent to which Omar’s comments are taken out of context is breathtaking, even for Trump.
Ironically, Omar’s address to CAIR took place shortly after a terrorist who professed a Trump-influenced terrorism who hailed Trump as a “symbol of white supremacy” slaughtered fifty people in attacks on two New Zealand mosques. Omar was offering hope to a room full of frightened Muslims.
“We are coming off a tragic, tragic nightmare that has happened to Muslims in New Zealand,” Omar said in her speech. “Many of you know this not a one-off incident. Many of us were not shocked or surprised. Many of us were holding our breath for a really long time thinking ‘when will something like this happen?’ Because many of us have experienced threats in our mosques, in our schools, and toward our leaders. Many of have witnessed bombing of mosques. Many of us have seen mosques set on fire.”
She rightly laid blame for this anti-Muslim climate at Trump’s feet, but urged her fellow Muslims to fight back with love.
“[Trump] knows there are people that he can influence, to threaten our lives and to diminish our presence,” she said. “But, what we know, what Islam teaches and I always say, is that love trumps hate.”
How does love conquer hate? The Congresswoman tells her audience that love is not simply working to “not bother anyone” and “be a good Muslim,” because history has proven that isn’t enough.
“No matter how much we have tried to be the best neighbor, people have always worked on finding a way to not allow for every single civil liberty to be extended to us,” she said. Omar reminds her listeners, “As Muslims, we are called upon for justice and to speak the truth, even if it is against ourselves,” Omar said. “We must hold people we love, and have shared values with, accountable.”
The part that Trump intentionally took out of context is a passage where she points out the absurdity of punishing an entire group because of the actions of a few:
“For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."
It is a phrasing not much different than what white, Christian male politicians have used without anyone throwing a hissy fit.
For instance, this is what George W. Bush said at Ground Zero shortly after the 9/11 attacks: “The people—and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
The “people”? Oh, the insensitivity!
Two days after 9/11,Trump was asked how the United States should respond. This is what he said: “They have to find out exactly what the cause was, who did it, and they have to go after these people.”
A few days later Trump appeared on The Howard Stern Show and was asked about investing in the stock market. “The stock market I think is going to be quite good over the next few years, but you know the real terror of the stock market is that if you have another incident, even a much smaller one‚ I can't imagine a much bigger one—it’s so sensitive right now that something like that would really knock the hell out of it.”
Of course, nobody called him unpatriotic for referring to 9/11 as an “incident” and “something.” But then, Trump is not a Muslim woman.