In a speech Tuesday, Ilhan Omar didn't defend her faith as much as she defended our democracy
By Dana Milbank
The Washington Post
Ilhan Omar, the congresswoman President Trump’s chanting mob would deport to Africa, sat onstage Tuesday with fellow Muslims, before an audience of Muslims, taking questions from Muslims.
And what she said was quintessentially American.
The head of a group called Muslims for Progressive Values rose to say that “it would be really powerful if the two Muslim congresswomen” — Omar, D-Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan — spoke out against the practice of female genital mutilation.
Omar silenced the room by calling the question “appalling.” Noting that she already “put out statements upon statements” on the topic, she said she’s “quite disgusted, to be honest, that as Muslim legislators we are constantly being asked to waste our time speaking to issues that other people are not asked to speak to.” She mockingly asked whether she needs “to be on repeat every five minutes. So, today, I forgot to condemn al-Qaida, so here’s the al-Qaida one. Today, I forgot to condemn FGM [female genital mutilation], so here it goes. Today, I forgot to condemn Hamas, so here it goes.” She said the questions imply that, because she’s Muslim, she might support things “so abhorrent, so offensive, so evil, so vile.”
Her all-American outrage vented, Omar concluded: “I would like, not just for you, but for everyone to know that if you want us to speak as politicians, American politicians, then you treat us as such.”
The audience broke into cheers and applause. I felt like joining in.
Omar remains ill-defined beyond the monstrous caricature the president has made of her with his racist slander. She’s one of the four nonwhite congresswomen (“the Squad”) who Trump proposes should “go back” to the countries from which they came, even though three were born in the United States. Omar, who emigrated from Somalia as a child, was the target of the “send her back” chant at Trump’s rally last week, and of Trump’s unsubstantiated suggestion that she once married her own brother. Minutes before Omar took the stage Tuesday at the Muslim Caucus Education Collective conference in Washington, D.C., Trump tweeted about “America-hating anti-Semite Rep. Omar,” who with the others in the Squad is a “Nightmare for America.”
For Trump’s racist base, Omar has it all: black, female, Muslim, immigrant. Omar previously hurt her own cause when her criticism of Israel crossed into anti-Semitism, displaying the same sort of prejudice that is often directed at Muslims.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-omars-black-female-muslim-immigrant-and-american/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=abbd19e893-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-abbd19e893-228635337
