Ilhan Omar became one of the first Muslim women to ever be elected to Congress after she won Minnesota’s 5th congressional district. Her reputation in Congress has been made highly infamous thanks to her controversial comments surrounding Israeli-American relations and more recently 9/11. Omar gave a speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which she detailed the inferiority that Muslims have felt since the 9/11 attacks. Her full quote went as follows: “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." President Trump tweeted a video in which he placed the audio of Omar saying “some people did something” in between gruesome video footage of the planes hitting the towers.
People who condemn her comments claim that Omar downplayed the severity of 9/11 and disrespected the lives lost. Critics of Trump claim that he took her comments out of context. Rashida Tlaib, the only other Muslim woman in Congress, criticized the actions of Democrats who have not come to her defense. She argues that the party uses the both of them to paint a picture of inclusivity but won’t stand with them when they speak about the issues that concern them. These topics continue to cause a tense splice in the Democratic party. These divisive issues may be concerning to upcoming 2020 candidates.
Do you think her comments are disrespectful or taken out of context? Omar has reported receiving death threats following Trump’s video, will this controversy ruin her political career? Do you think these types of internal party conflicts are worrying?
I think her comments were taken out of context. I hope this doesn’t ruin her political career. 9/11 was obviously a bad and severe moment in US history but she wasn’t talking about the severity of the attack. She was talking about the bad treatment American citizens got afterwards simply for being Muslim. I think this is another example of people trying to hush a problem by attempting to make the victim the enemy.
ReplyDeleteI think that her comments were really disrespectful. I do not think that the death threats are necessary. 9/11 is touchy subject with Americans, what happened on that day was not just "some people did something."
ReplyDeleteI think Omar should have taken into account that many lives were lost on 9/11, however she did have a point in saying that Muslims are treated unfairly in America for acts committed by terrorists of their same race. Trump completely ignored the real message she was trying to send in her speech and instead focused on a combination of words he saw as offensive. The death threats Omar is receiving are awful and something no one should have to experience and the conflict between parties over this comment are very worrying for future interactions.
ReplyDeleteI understand how this could be misconstrued to sound inconsiderate or inappropriately minimizing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but I believe her actual objective with that quote was to point out the also very tangible reality of Islamophobia and the danger uncultured Americans face of labelling and stereotyping. These rude and irresponsible but sadly almost inherent actions of our general society can and often do lead to painful ostracism and discrimination. Trump's video is a characteristic, obnoxiously dramatic and immature overreaction and embarrassment to the American people. Hopefully his rash actions do not cost her her political career, and certainly not her life.
ReplyDeleteI believe her comment might have been well-intentioned, but it came out very disrespectfully. She ended up devaluing the attacks as if it didn't have as large of an effect on America. This controversy will not ruin her career because she and her fellow democrats have done a great job victimizing her.
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