![\"Ilhan Omar\" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1358\/2023\/02\/2-2-ilhan-300x200.jpeg\")
I have particularly strong feelings about Ms. Omar<\/a><\/span>. She is a refugee from a war-torn country who came to the US to participate in freedom and democracy. In this way she is very much like my husband of 37 years. He was born in the Gaza Strip, in a refugee camp, and was there during the Six-Day War. Some of the things that he and Ms. Omar have seen in their lifetimes, the memories they carry with them, we can\u2019t even begin to imagine.<\/p>\n My husband is a light-ish skinned Arab and Muslim male, so it\u2019s possible for him to \u201cpass\u201d as white (as long as nobody knows his name or hears his accent) \u2013 but Ilhan Omar is conspicuous with her black skin and hijab. Those of us who live with privilege have no idea of the courage she has to muster every day to live a public life.<\/p>\n It is her very distinctness and courage that would have made her a real asset to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She sees the world through a unique lens, and we need diversity of lenses in our government. A wealthy, white, privileged male Congress member may think he\u2019s open-minded, but can not see the world as a black, Muslim, female immigrant who has lived in Africa, and has had the experience of being a refugee and asylum-seeker.<\/p>\n Speaker Kevin McCarthy explained her dismissal: \u201cWe\u2019re not removing her from other committees, we just do not believe when it comes to foreign affairs\u2014she shouldn\u2019t serve there.\u201d<\/p>\n Omar heard his message loud and clear (watch a clip of her powerful speech here<\/a>):<\/p>\n This debate today, it\u2019s about who gets to be an American. What opinions do we get to have, do we have to have to be counted as Americans, this is what this debate is about.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I am Muslim. I am an immigrant \u2026 Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n I am an American \u2014 an American who was sent here by her constituents to represent them in Congress, a refugee who survived the horrors of a civil war. Someone who spent her childhood in a refugee camp, someone who knows what it means to have a shot at a better life here in the United States, and someone who believes in the American dream.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is no coincidence that this hijab-wearing woman of color would empathize with marginalized groups \u2013 refugees, asylum seekers, Palestinians.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also no coincidence that white men<\/a> (and women<\/a>) would be especially intimidated by her, or that they would find some reason to bully, disqualify, and silence her.<\/p>\n (Commercial: if you question \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d in Christianity and partisan politics \u2013 or want to question it \u2013 subscribe to my <\/i>newsletter<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>, and we can journey together!)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n The New York Times<\/em> described<\/a> the removal of Ilhan Omar as an effort not just to settle a partisan score, but also to \u201ccurry favor with pro-Israel groups and evangelical voters.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Omar has made mistakes. She has made comments in good faith that were taken in bad faith, comments that she may or may not have known to be unacceptable in polite company. I\u2019m referring here to her supposed \u201cantisemitic tropes\u201d (I\u2019ve written about this elsewhere<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n In today\u2019s \u201cpolite\u201d company, there are some truths you don\u2019t say out loud \u2013 but this kind of politeness is not Omar\u2019s style. Washington needs more people willing to tell the truth and fewer people trying to shut them up.<\/p>\n She was pressured into apologizing<\/a> for some of the things she said, but Ilhan Omar makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s part of a conversation<\/a> she had around the issue back in 2019:<\/p>\n \u2026a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we [herself and Rep. Rashida Tlaib] are Muslim.<\/em><\/p>\n But it\u2019s almost as if, every single time we say something regardless of what it is we say\u2026we get to be labeled something. And that ends the discussion. Because we end up defending that, and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ilhan Omar is acutely aware of an unaddressed human rights issue<\/a> that affects millions of people (and that the US subsidizes to the tune of $10 million a day<\/a>). Every attempt she makes to talk about it is ignored for the sake of political correctness (a \u201ccorrectness<\/a>\u201d defined by supporters<\/a> of Israel<\/a>).<\/p>\n Mind you, Omar is not criticizing Jews for what is happening in Israel \u2013 she is criticizing Israel<\/em> for what\u2019s happening<\/a> in Israel<\/a> \u2013 and the US for complicity<\/a>. She\u2019s asking to have an actual debate about it. And this is unacceptable.<\/p>\n Never mind that a number of prominent Congress members \u2013 many of them Jewish \u2013 stood with her during the debate. Never mind that other Congress members have made truly antisemitic remarks<\/a>, and that other politicians have courted<\/a> actual antisemites and even Holocaust deniers.<\/p>\n Because she empathizes with the plight of the Palestinians \u2013 that is to say, she won\u2019t get in line with those who support the apartheid regime of Israel \u2013 she can\u2019t be trusted to have an acceptable conversation about foreign policy.<\/p>\n One of Omar\u2019s detractors, Rep. Mike Lawler, called her views \u201chateful\u201d \u2013 and that\u2019s not the first time the word has been wrongly applied to her. There is a big difference between hate and criticism, but it\u2019s easier to say \u201cthat\u2019s hateful\u201d than \u201cthat\u2019s inconveniently true.\u201d<\/p>\n Most politicians don\u2019t want to acknowledge inconvenient truths, because once you do, you can\u2019t un-acknowledge it. You are stuck. You must address it or sacrifice your integrity. But let\u2019s be perfectly clear here: politicians know what\u2019s going on in Israel, and their integrity has gone down the toilet.<\/p>\n (If you are energized by challenges to the status quo like this, please\u00a0subscribe to my newsletter<\/span><\/a><\/span>! <\/i><\/span>If you would like to comment on this post, please pop over to my <\/i>Facebook page<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/i><\/span> All of my posts are there and open to constructive comment! I welcome your thoughts.<\/i>)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n OTHER POSTS ABOUT THE ISRAEL\/PALESTINE ISSUE:<\/strong><\/p>\n FEATURED IMAGE: \u201cIlhan Omar\u201d by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not everybody follows the news about committee assignments in the House of Representatives, but we all should be aware of what just happened to Ilhan Omar \u2013 and we should be outraged. Rep. Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday (Thursday) by a party-line vote. Party politics has gotten so nasty and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4414,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,403,24,39],"tags":[926,732,845,1065,474],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-injustice","category-palestine-and-israel","category-politics","category-women","tag-antisemitism","tag-apartheid","tag-ilhan-omar","tag-islamophobia","tag-palestine"],"yoast_head":"\nThis is what it\u2019s about<\/h3>\n
This is what else it\u2019s about<\/h3>\n
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