Tag: Council on American–Islamic Relations

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has weighed in on the most recent controversy involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, retweeting video edited to suggest that the Minnesota Democrat was dismissive of the significance of the Sept. 11 attacks. Trump on Friday tweeted, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!” Omar’s remark has drawn criticism largely from political opponents and conservatives. Omar told CAIR in Los Angeles that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the attacks, and she advocated for activism. “For 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,” she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. “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.” CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership increased dramatically after the attacks. Many Republicans and conservative outlets expressed outrage at Omar’s remarks. “First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something,'” tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. The retired Navy SEAL lost his right eye in 2012 in an explosion in Afghanistan. She tweeted a quote from former President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks, when he said: “‘The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” “Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack?” Omar tweeted. “What if he was a Muslim.” Several of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates condemned Trump’s tweet.

The New York Post on Thursday hit back at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., following her recent comments on the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The dramatic front page featured an infamous photo of New York City’s Twin Towers on fire on the day of the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. The page read: “Rep. Ilhan Omar: 9/11 was ‘some people did something.’” “Here’s your something: 2,977 people dead by terrorism.” Her comments prompted a response from Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL who lost his right eye after being injured by an IED in Afghanistan. “Unbelievable.” Omar, who became the first Somali-American elected to Congress in November, appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday where her 9/11 comments were not addressed. The freshman congresswoman told the host she was still “learning” after she was accused of making an anti-Semitic remark in February. “The whole process really has been one of growth for me, right,” she said. “I’m learning that everything is not as simple as we might think.

Newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar will jet off to Los Angeles next month to keynote a fundraiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a terror-tied organization that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist financing case in U.S. history. “CAIR-LA is honored to have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as the featured speaker for the 4th Annual Valley Banquet,” reads a press release from the Los Angeles chapter of the group that was formed as a Hamas support network in the United States. She will deliver her address alongside CAIR-Florida director Hassan Shibly, according to a CAIR flier promoting the event. Moreover, Shibly regularly takes to social media to demonize the U.S. military as equivalent to the jihadi terrorists that they are fighting. The director of CAIR-Los Angeles is Hussam Ayloush, who, like many CAIR executives, has disturbing Islamist views. Following the tragic San Bernardino terrorist attacks, Ayloush suggested that the United States was “partly responsible” for the ISIS-led attack on innocents in California. “Let’s not forget that some of our own foreign policy, as Americans, as the West, have fueled that extremism,” he added. Though AIPAC does not contribute to political campaigns, CAIR certainly does. CAIR’s fundraiser is just one of the controversial events lined up for Omar’s schedule. HSBC bank has also severed ties with the organization, cautioning that funds delivered to the group could end up in the war chests of terrorist organizations.