US President Donald Trump has continued his extraordinary racist tirade against Muslim American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar by painting the Minnesota Democrat as a fan of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Trump claimed during a campaign rally that Omar was “proud” of Al-Qaeda. “You say Al-Qaeda, it makes you [Omar] proud, Al-Qaeda makes you proud!” he is reported saying by NBC News. The remarks were made in reference to a recent interview in which Omar refused to answer questions about the spurious allegation which has been stoked up by the president’s followers and the right-wing media that she supports the terrorist group.
“When asked whether she supported Al-Qaeda, that’s our enemy – that’s our enemy she refused to answer. She didn’t want to give an answer to that question,” said Trump. His portrayal of what Omar actually said has been denounced as a complete misrepresentation and a further indication that the US president has made racist attacks on the four non-white Congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Somali-born Ilhan Omar, a major strategy in his re-election.
Omar’s comments at news conference earlier this week came as a reaction to Trump’s repeated accusations that she is supportive of Al-Qaeda. “I will not dignify it with an answer,” Omar is reported saying. She continued: “I do not expect every time there is a white supremacist who attacks, or there is a white man who kills in a school or in a movie theatre or in a mosque or in a synagogue, I don’t expect my white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. And so I think it is beyond time … to ask Muslims to condemn terrorists.”
Contrary to Trump’s claim, Omar in fact answered the question, though perhaps not in a way that he would have liked. Omar’s remarks were an appeal to be treated equally and not scapegoat an entire community for the heinous actions of mindless individuals.
Trump continued to misrepresent Omar, telling his followers that “Rep. Omar blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks on our country, saying that terrorism is a reaction to our involvement in other people’s affairs.” The misrepresented comments were in reference to a 2013 interview in which Omar was having a broader conversation on terrorism and said that it was a reaction fuelled by war, invasion and US involvement in “other countries’ affairs”. Her remarks are widely understood to be an honest observation, especially in the aftermath of American invasion of Iraq in 2003 which analysts almost unanimously concede opened the flood gates of terrorism and war in the Middle East.
There is no evidence that Omar has said that she is proud of the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. During her 2013 interview, Omar frequently refers to Al-Qaeda and terrorists groups as “evil” and “heinous”, but criticises Americans for painting all Muslims with the terrorism label.