On Saturday, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from Minnesota made an appearance at a fundraising event for the Council of Islamic-American Relations of Greater Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, there were several hundred protesters at the event.
Even though there were officers from the Los Angeles Police Department present at the event, activists still shouted “Burn the Quran” and “Shame on you terrorists” while Omar was speaking.
Activist Laura Loomer place banners, which hung from a nearby balcony close to the Woodland Hills venue, that read “Ilhan Hates Israel” and “CAIR hates Jews.”
Recently, Omar, who is a Muslim, has been the topic of protests for the past few weeks for comments she made that were considered anti-Semitic. While she was speaking at the CAIR event, Omar associated the way that President Trump speaks to his followers with the recent attacks at the two mosques in New Zealand. According to THe Los Angeles Times, Omar said: “We all kind of knew that this was happening.”
“But the reason I think that many of us knew that this was going to get worse is that we finally had a leader in the White House who publicly says Islam hates us, who fuels hate against Muslims, who thinks it is OK to speak about a faith and a whole community in a way that is dehumanizing, vilifying,” she continued.
Explaining that she knows better, Omar said that Trump “doesn’t understand, or at least makes us want to think that he doesn’t understand, the consequence that his words might have.”
“Some people like me know that he understands the consequences. He knows that there are people that he can influence to threaten our lives, to diminish our presence,” she continued. Omar also had a few things to say about those who showed up to protest against her.
“There are thoroughly fascinating people outside who for so many years have spoken about an Islam that is oppressive, an Islam that lessens and isolates its women, and today they gather outside to protest a Muslim woman who is in Congress,” she said. “The irony in that is very entertaining to me.”
While she was speaking, Omar had hundreds of protestors marching against her. “I don’t think many of them realize that people like myself, and many of the people in this room, could care less about what they have to say, because we know who we are, and where we belong, and what we stand for,” she said.
The final piece of advice that Omar had for other Muslims was for them to be confrontational. According to the Daily News, Omar said: “I say raise hell, make people uncomfortable.”
