Rep. Ilhan Omar on Saturday condemned her GOP colleagues’ inaction following the recent publication by Rep. Lauren Boebert of an anti-Muslim video in which the Colorado Republican lies about the Somali-American lawmaker being mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber inside the U.S. Capitol.
“These anti-Muslim attacks aren’t about my ideas but about my identity and it’s clear,” Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted.
Addressing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), she added that “your silence speaks volumes.”
First day of Congress, this member who said
to Steve knew nothing about me besides the fact that I was Muslim & that somehow made me a terrorist to him.
These anti-Muslim attacks aren’t about my ideas but about my identity & it’s clear. @GOPLeader your silence speaks volumes. pic.twitter.com/pXHHKqRhqp
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 27, 2021
Boebert issued what critics called a “sorry not sorry” apology via Twitter on Friday after calling Omar (D-Minn.) a member of “the jihad squad” and falsely claiming that a Capitol police officer came urgently running into an elevator the two congresswomen shared.
“What’s happening?” Boebert said in the video, which was recorded at an event in Pueblo last Saturday. “I look to my left and there she is, Ilhan Omar, and I said, ‘Well she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine.'”
Boebert’s story — which Omar says never happened — drew applause and cheers from the audience. Pueblo County Republican chair Leverington subsequently defended Boebert, saying she “probably expressed the sentiment of many Americans.”
Boebert also referred to progressive Democratic lawmakers as the “jihad squad” last week while defending Rep. Paul Gosar, who on November 17 was censured by the House of Representatives and stripped of his committee appointments after his office produced and published an edited animé video depicting the Arizona Republican murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attacking President Joe Biden with swords.
While Democrats and at least one Republican — Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — have condemned Boebert’s attack on Omar, GOP leadership has been silent on the matter.
“Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter,” Omar tweeted on Friday, adding that McCarthy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “need to take appropriate action.”
“Normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims,” she warned. “Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.”
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.