Ilhan Omar Accused of Being a 'Muslim Supremacist' After New Comments About Jews in Congress
Rep. Ilhan Omar has been accused of being a “Muslim supremacist” after the Minnesota Democrat defended comments she made comparing Israel to Hamas and the Taliban.
Omar told CNN on Tuesday that she didn’t regret her Twitter post from earlier this month in which she claimed that there have been “unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
She said she was stressing that the International Criminal Court is currently investigating Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
“I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make, obviously I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken. The cases are put together in front of the ICC, ICC has been investigating,” Omar told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“I know that, you know, some of my colleagues don’t lend legitimacy to the ICC, but I tend to think that people around the world who have experienced injustice need to be able to have a place where they can go.
“And as a country that helped found the ICC and supported it, I think that it is really important for us to continue to find ways in which people can find justice around the world.”
When Tapper asked Omar if she understood why some of her Jewish colleagues thought her language was anti-Semitic, she responded, “it’s really important for these members to realize that they haven’t been partners in injustice.”
“They haven’t been, you know, equally engaging in seeking justice around the world,” she told Tapper, in language that drew particularly harsh criticism.
“And I think, you know, I will continue to do that. It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed, and who have had injustice done to them.”
Twitter users were quick to respond.
“[Jewish members of Congress] haven’t been partners in justice. They haven’t been equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.”
Ilhan Omar responding to charges of past antisemitism by bringing new antisemitic tropes into the convo is quality TV.pic.twitter.com/3793nNBc8W
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) June 30, 2021
“Omar’s comments draw on classic antisemitic themes about Jewish clannishness, the notion that Jews only look out for themselves,” Managing Director of Global Communications at the American Jewish Committee Avi Mayer tweeted.
“They’re also plainly false. Jewish lawmakers have been on the front lines, fighting for human rights in America and globally.”
Omar’s comments draw on classic antisemitic themes about Jewish clannishness, the notion that Jews only look out for themselves.
They’re also plainly false.
Jewish lawmakers have been on the front lines, fighting for human rights in America and globally.https://t.co/FEJmwu1JeT
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) June 30, 2021
Her critics were not only Jews.
Asra Nomani, vice president of Parents Defending Education and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, called Omar a “modern day Muslim Supremacist.”
“This is what a modern day Muslim Supremacist looks like. Ilhan Omar speaks to @jaketapper + rebukes Jewish Democratic colleagues for failing to be ‘partners in injustice,'” Nomani tweeted.
“Her wound is bigger than their wound — a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics.”
This is what a modern day Muslim Supremacist looks like. Ilhan Omar speaks to @jaketapper + rebukes Jewish Democratic colleagues for failing to be “partners in injustice.” Her wound is bigger than their wound—a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics. pic.twitter.com/IaPPJ1LqFU
— Asra Q. Nomani (@AsraNomani) June 30, 2021
Washington Examiner Magazine reporter Seth Mandel wrote in a Twitter post that Omar will eventually alienate herself from her Democratic colleagues.
Everybody’s got a line. If she stays in Congress long enough she’ll cross everyone’s.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) June 30, 2021
“Everybody’s got a line,” Mandel wrote. “If she stays in Congress long enough she’ll cross everyone’s.”
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