The Sunday morning talk shows all seemed to find time for a segment on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s awful commentary about 9/11, but somehow they also all seemed to find a way to turn it into an attack on President Trump.
Who woulda thunk it?
The anti-Semitic Omar is the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans. In this case it was reported last week that in a speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) she had made the following statement:
“I say raise hell, make people uncomfortable. Because here’s the truth. Far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen. And frankly I’m tired of it. And every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. 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.”
In particular it was said by critics that Omar’s reference to “some people did something” was an insensitive way to refer to the deaths of about 3,000 people in a terror attack by al-Qaida. Even Nancy Pelosi seemed to understand that.
But when Republicans criticized Omar for her comment, they were accused of being racist or Muslim haters. President Trump, in particular, was castigated for a tweet that showed a video of Omar intercut with video of the burning Twin Towers. On the Sunday news shows, Democrats repeatedly tried to pivot the discussion to Trump’s tweet instead of Omar’s comment. Reciting the same talking points, they claimed that Trump was endangering Omar because she was getting death threats. No mention of Omar taking any personal responsibility for her outrageous statements.
There was also a common theme of repeating Omar’s claim that Muslims were “starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” as if that were beyond doubt (and also framed as if it were a growing problem right now). I certainly challenge that claim, and I wish one Republican representative on one of those panels had the temerity to push back against that canard. How are Muslim Americans losing access to civil liberties exactly? It’s just not true.
Muslim Americans are not second-class citizens. They have the same rights as anyone — and the same responsibilities. Like many demagogues before her, Omar is using her First Amendment rights to provoke a reaction — in this case from Jews, conservatives, Christians and Republicans. That is not a responsible use of her rights as a US citizen. Nor is her frequent misstatement of the truth such as when she falsely claimed that CAIR was founded after 9/11. In fact CAIR was founded in the 1990s as a front group for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, CAIR has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates.
Finally, let’s look at the statement by Omar that has raised so much ire:
“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.”
I’m not even certain that her claim that “some people did something” even refers to the terror attacks of 9/11. I’ve looked at the context and I can’t be sure the some people she refers to are the Islamic terrorists at all. Her timeline is wrong about when CAIR was founded, but it’s also possible that the popular interpretation of Omar’s words about “some people did something” is also wrong.
I submit that it is equally likely that Omar is speaking in coded language not about the terrorists, but about the members of Congress who passed the PATRIOT Act in the wake of the attack. These members of Congress and President George Bush were the “some people” who “did something” to restrict “access to our civil liberties” not just for Muslims but for all Americans.
It makes more sense to me that Omar would lay blame on Congress than on the terrorists for what happened in the wake of 9/11. Either way, they are her words and she should be held responsible for them. Criticism of her is entirely fair despite the protestations of the left-wing media and their puppets in the Democratic Party.
And President Trump will just become more popular than ever as long as Democrats align themselves with the rantings of an anti-Semitic member of Congress who is quickly becoming the David Duke of the left.
HeartlandDiaryUSA.com hosts the commentary of Frank Miele, former editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana. Your support for this blog is appreciated. Please consider purchasing one of my books at Amazon. My new book is “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake?” — a look at Fake News from the perspective of a small-town newspaper editor. In addition, my “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy documents the downward spiral of the USA that made Trump’s presidency so important. The books are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. Go here for a free sample of “The Media Matrix”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/sitb/B07PDQBJM4
Re: Omar… a muslim…(first and foremost)
It perhaps should be restated..readvised..noted.. that muslims have an approved method
of action .to enable islam Most call it LYING ..They call it Taquia
It is permissible per some book they read. Capish ???