SHAFAQNA- Since Donald Trump came to power in the United States, he has made global headlines for his often audacious comments on women’s rights, foreign political interference, Muslims, and immigrants. Recently, in a series of racist tweets , President Donald Trump told a group of four Democratic congresswomen, all of whom are people of color, to “go back” to their supposed home countries. Ilhan Omar, US Muslim Congresswoman House of Representatives member for Minnesota, was among those targeted.
Born in Somalia, she escaped the civil war to spend much of her childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya, before her family emigrated to the US – where she is a citizen. In 2016, she became the first elected Somali-American Muslim legislator in the US.
This was not the only time she has faced the president’s ire. The framing of his attacks on Omar often targeted her refugee status, religion and ethnicity, and reveal. Trump’s main fuel for his tirades against Omar stems from her criticism of Americans for their discrimination against Muslims, The Guardian told.
Trump has made defamatory comments accusing her of praising al-Qaeda, and saying that she downplayed the 9/11 terror attacks.
Omar has not praised al Qaeda or said she can hold her “chest out” when thinking of al Qaeda. Trump was inaccurately describing remarks she made in 2013 about how one of her college professors acted when he discussed al Qaeda.
Trump was referring to an Omar comment that has circulated this year in conservative media, including Fox News.
Only a short video clip has been posted on conservative websites. Even that clip does not include Omar praising Al Qaeda in any way, CNN reported.
Responding to Trump’s accusations, Omar tells Al Jazeera: “Those [9/11] are horrific attacks. There’s no question about it, that’s not a debatable thing. Innocent Americans lost their lives that day, we all mourn their deaths … And I think it’s quite disgusting that people even question that and want to debate that.”
“What is important is the larger point that I was speaking to,” Omar clarifies, “which is about making sure that blame isn’t placed on a whole faith, that we as Muslims are not collectively blamed for the actions of terrorists.”
“I do not blame every single white person when we have a white man who massacres children at a school, or moviegoers in a movie theatre. And I think this really horrendous narrative that says, as a Muslim, I’m supposed to explain, apologise, for the actions of someone who’s also terrorising me, is absurd.”
Omar is vocal in her opposition to other US-foreign allegiances, including the relationship with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“How can we make a decision to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, knowing that they have been part of causing one of the most atrocious humanitarian crises in Yemen, when we know that they have a hand in what’s happening right now in Sudan, what’s happening in Libya, and the list can go on and on and on,” she says.
“Our alliedship with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates is immoral. I believe that it is one of the most absurd alliedships; it doesn’t fit with any of our values. When we think about what is in the interest of our national security, entrusting them to help us with that is like trusting a thief to watch over your shop. We know that they can’t be trusted in that process.”
This week President Trump vetoed three bipartisan measures intended to block the sale of $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But Congress has one last best chance to assert itself over Trump’s often erratic foreign policy in the Middle East: the National Defense Authorization bill.
The measure is seen as a must-pass, and both chambers have already passed conflicting measures. Now they must combine the two. The House package is $733 billion, and the Senate’s is $750 billion, which is in line with what Trump has requested. So there’s plenty of negotiating room, if Democrats play hardball.
In order to get anti-war Democrats to sign off, House party leaders agreed to give progressives votes on measures to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia and ban the administration from starting a war with Iran without the approval of Congress, and another one that ends the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. All passed, and in the end, only eight Democrats joined every Republican in voting against the bill.
Now the anti-war provisions are vital to maintain Democratic support for the final version, vice news reported.
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