US Muslim lawmaker caught in political maelstrom
A former refugee and the first black Muslim woman elected to US Congress, Ilhan Omar, embodied the American dream in her November victory but faces controversies fuelled by her own words and President Donald Trump’s hostility towards her.
Omar’s win was celebrated as historic, and her arrival in Washington contributed to the appreciation that Congress was finally becoming a more diverse, representative American institution.
Now she is receiving daily death threats.
Since her January swearingin, the 37year-old
Minnesota Democrat has been at the centre of a swirling debate about anti-Semitism, discrimination and the role of an outspoken first-year congresswoman who challenges the White House and makes her own party’s leadership chafe.
Omar’s remark that US political backing for the Jewish state is fuelled by money from a pro-Israel lobbying group, and her open support for a boycott and divestment movement against Israel led to vocal criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
Earlier this month, she acknowledged becoming a lightning rod, telling late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert that identity politics had made immigrants, refugees, women of colour and Muslims the focus of national controversy.
“I just happen to embody all of those identities,” Omar said on Colbert’s CBS show last week.
Belligerence against the lawmaker has ramped up dramatically after a clip emerged of her characterising the Sept 11, 2001 attacks as “some people did something”.