The resolution to remove Ilhan Omar, the US congresswoman from Minnesota, from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has caused a backlash near and far. Some critics argued it was a racially motivated move against a prominent Muslim woman in the US Congress.
On Thursday, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to pass a resolution that saw her removal from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
House Republicans accused Omar of anti-Semitism over past statements on Israel. However, Democrats criticised her ousting, arguing the Minnesota Democrat had been held accountable for her past remarks.
El-Hajj Mauri Saalakhan, president of the Aafia Foundation, noted that Omar faced numerous attacks from her critics both inside and outside of the US Congress.
According to Saalakhan, such attacks were due to the fact that Omar was a hijab-donning Muslim black immigrant. He said this exposed her to all sorts of attempts to unseat her, despite her constituents repeatedly granting her a mandate to represent them.
“She has been reelected a number of times. Her critics, both in and outside the US Congress, latch onto any opportunity they see to attack her. This is at the heart of the controversy surrounding this Muslim congresswoman,” said Saalakhan.
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Challenging job for Ilhan Omar
The Somali-born Democrat congresswoman’s election to the US Congress was welcomed as a historic first. It was well-received as a step in the direction and many had hoped it was a sign of change. It came with exhausting challenges.
Dr Quraysha Sooliman, an activist and academic at the University of Pretoria (UP), highlighted the toxic political environment that Omar entered in 2019.
“We’ve seen the rise of the right wing [and] exceptional pivoting towards supremacist ideology. To be in that kind of environment is actually toxic. The fact that she’s there shows her commitment. The fact that she’s not lost her identity shows her strength of character,” said Sooliman.
Saalakhan pointed towards the double standards that existed in regards to the accusations of anti-Semitism that had been levelled against Omar.
“She has been a lightning rod on so many levels since she entered the US Congress and one of those controversies has been the accusation that she’s anti-Semitic. One of the ironies is that in order for someone to make that argument, they have had to take a statement that she has made in the past and just really twist it and turn it to justify making that type of accusation when, on the other hand, members of the very party that has attacked her for this have made blatant anti-Semitic statements, accusations [and] insinuations,” he said.
Omar had on several occasions been accused of anti-Semitism due to her stance against Israeli oppression. She now faces scrutiny over a reported cash flow from her campaign to her husband’s firm, E Street Group.
Inayet Wadee, Dr Quraysha Sooliman and El-Hajj Mauri Saalakhan also spoke about the role of politicians and Islamic values in governance. Listen to the full discussion here:
