Nation’s first two Muslim congresswomen sworn in, surrounded by ones they inspired
WASHINGTON — Khadra Mohamud stood in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s brand-new congressional office Thursday, taking in a new scene in American politics – a crowd of supporters, the majority of them women, many of them in hijabs, celebrating the swearing-in of a Muslim woman as a member of Congress.
“[This means] everything to us,” said Mohamud, 28, who volunteered for Omar’s campaign and traveled from the Democrat’s state of Minnesota to be there for her swearing-in. “It means we can get into politics and make it to the highest level.”
Not far away, a similar scene was unfolding in the office of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Omar and Tlaib were elected in November, in the midterm elections that swept in a more diverse and more female class of representatives. The two are the first women of their faith elected to Congress.
“I wanted my kids to be here to witness this,” Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American human rights lawyer, said as her 4-year-old daughter squirmed on her lap.
Inside both offices, supporters watched the legislators take the oath of office at the nearby Capitol on a live stream. Many more Muslims across the country watched live streams on C-SPAN and Facebook. Some posted photos of themselves wearing thobes, the traditional Palestinian gown that Tlaib wore to the ceremony, using the hashtag #TweetYourThobe to proclaim their pride.
As Zaha Hassan pulled on a patterned red, orange and white gown, she said Tlaib’s swearing-in helped contradict nega- tive perceptions of Palestinian Americans. “What she represents to me is a shattering of the walls that kept us from participating” in politics, said Hassan, who works at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Despite a resurgence in nativism in the United States and abroad that Hassan called “troubling,” she said Thursday symbolized “the hope of something better.”
Two Muslim men have been elected to Congress previously: Keith Ellison, who just ended his term representing Minnesota and was elected the state’s attorney general, and Rep. André Carson of Indiana. All four are Democrats. Some women who flocked to Capitol Hill on Thursday to celebrate Tlaib and Omar’s swearing-in said they were particularly moved to see women raised all their lives in the Muslim community elected to Congress. (Ellison and Car- son converted to Islam.)
Ethnic pride in the new congresswomen – Somali Americans supporting Omar, Palestinian Americans supporting Tlaib – blended with their religious pride.
“The American Muslim community is definitely one of the most diverse, if not the most diverse, religious community in America,” said Arsalan Suleman, a former U.S. envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “You definitely have the broader positive and excited response from the Muslim American community, but for specific communities as well, their victory and their election has been extremely meaningful and empowering.”
He said that their election underscores a broader trend of young Muslims taking greater interest in getting involved in American politics. “We’re sort of seen through the lens of security, always: counterterrorism or countering extremism. Part of the excitement and joy that people have, seeing these two women being sworn in, is they’re showing ... that’s not the reality of Muslim American life,” he said. Instead, Tlaib and Omar focused their campaigns on issues that many Muslims are most concerned about, including health care.