From BET.com
December 2, 2021
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, disgusted by increased attacks by media conservatives and some Congressional Republicans played a death threat recently left for her by voicemail. She demanded that House Republican leaders speak out against the “anti-Muslim hatred” among their members and that they “hold those who perpetuate it accountable,” the AP reports.
Omar is one of three currently Muslim members of Congress. She contends that the viral video of first-term Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert in which Omar was slandered as a member of the “jihad squad” and implied that she is a bomb-carrying terrorist likely to attack the Capitol, is part of a wider trend of Republicans being prejudiced against Muslims.
Arsalan Iftikhar, human rights lawyer and author of Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order told BET.com that this level of directed attack must be addressed.
“You know that Islamophobia is part of the Republican political playbook when a Black Muslim female member of Congress gets death threats because some right-wing charlatan spews racist fictional stories about her,” he said. Iftikhar explained the level may be heightened, but the message is unfortunately not new. “From Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban to Republican presidential candidates saying Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to serve in government, this rise in anti-Muslim bigotry coming from the Republican party highlights the importance of intersectional allyship between all people of color and under-represented minorities in America today.”
