Once again the words of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (DS – MN) have ignited passions and divided many.  This time it wasn’t anti-Semitic words…Omar crossed that line a few months ago.  No, this time it was her description of 9/11 that has allegedly put her life in danger.  Predictably, Ilhan claims no responsibility for her current predicament.  It’s President Trump’s fault that she’s receiving death threats, according to the left.  Speaker of the House Pelosi has calculated that she can shift the blame onto Trump.  She thinks some of the stink will stick…finally. 

For the sake of good CNN theater, Pelosi has asked the Secret Service and Capitol Police to provide additional protection for the Somali-American, Muslim congresswoman from Minneapolis. The liberal media is just running wild with the story.  For example, the Washington Post ran a headline on April 15th – Just say it: Trump’s attacks on Ilhan Omar are designed to incite hatred.  The left’s message is clear.  If you find Omar’s flippant description of 9/11 offensive, you are a racist, white nationalist, islamophobe, and he-man woman hater. 

The liberal media claims that Omar didn’t really say anything wrong this time.   Many critics of President Trump say Ilhan’s words are being taken out of context.  So what was the context of Omar’s remarks made at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on March 23, 2019? 

Leading up to her choice of words that have caused so much outrage, Omar was speaking of the discrimination that Muslims have experienced, and continue to experience in the United States.  Referring to the March 15, 2019 shootings at two mosques in New Zealand, Omar said…

“So we are coming off a tragic, tragic nightmare that has happened to Muslims in New Zealand. Many of us know that this is not a one-off incident. Many of us were not shocked or surprised. Many of us were kind of holding our breath for a really long time thinking when will something like this happen. Because many of us have experienced threats in our mosques, in our schools, even for our individual leaders. Many of us have witnessed bombings of mosques. Many of us have seen mosques set on fire. Many people, a few years ago, watched in horror as gunmen showed up to Irving, Texas, at a mosque, threatening Muslims. So, we all, we all kind of knew that this was happening…”

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MS)

Omar spoke of the New Zealand mosque shootings as a tragic, tragic nightmare.  Indeed these shootings were horrific and can rightly be described as a tragic, tragic nightmare.  Omar demonstrates that she can clearly describe tragedy.  So how can it be explained away as taken out of context, her complete trivialization of the events that unfolded in the United States on September 11, 2001?  It was only a few minutes later when Ihan, trying to describe why CAIR was founded, and doing so inaccurately, said this…

“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. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange, that I am going to try to make myself look pleasant. You have to say this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, I am going to go talk to them and ask them why. Because that is a right you have. (CAIR was founded in 1994).

To be clear on what Congresswoman Omar said – CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something…How else should this be interpreted other than concluding that Omar is describing the events of 9/11 as some people doing something?  She describes the shootings at the mosques in New Zealand as a tragic, tragic nightmare, and she describes the events of 9/11 – some people did something. 

Rather than blaming others, Ilhan Omar should give the American people an account of her convictions regarding 9/11.  She was 19 years old when 9/11 transpired.  How did she feel?  What did she say?  How about today?  Has she ever spoken out against Islamic extremism and terrorism in the name of Islam?  It should be expected that if Omar had to speak for 30 minutes on 9/11 she would make headlines again.

In her CAIR address, Omar encouraged her listeners to “…raise hell, make people uncomfortable…” She clearly enjoys making people uncomfortable, but she is not alone. There are millions of people in the United States good at making people uncomfortable, and some now want to make Ilhan uncomfortable too.  What if some people break through her security and harm her?  What if the headline read:  Some people did something to Ilhan Omar.