Ilhan Omar Goes Off on Liberal Muslim Who Asks Her To Condemn Female Genital Mutilation
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar did not want to hear it Tuesday from a progressive Muslim leader who asked her to condemn the practice of female genital mutilation.
FGM describes the practice in which women’s or girls’ genital organs are mutilated for nonmedical reasons, according to the World Health Organization.
Sadly, WHO estimates that more than 200 million women and girls alive today — largely in the Middle East, Africa and Asia — have undergone the procedure.
During her Tuesday appearance at the Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy conference in Washington, D.C., Omar was asked by Ani Zonneveld, president of the group Muslims for Progressive Values, if she would condemn female genital mutilation, according to BuzzFeed News.
But Omar, who is Muslim, was not pleased with the question, which she called “appalling.”
“Should I make a schedule, like, does this need to be on repeat every five minutes?” Omar responded.
“Should I be like, so, today I forgot to condemn al-Qaida, so here’s the al-Qaida. Today I forgot to condemn FGM, so here it goes. Today I forgot to condemn Hamas, so here it goes,” she added.
Omar is annoyed by these types of questions, she said, because she believes her record speaks for itself.
“It is a very frustrating question that comes up,” Omar said. “You can look up my record. I’ve voted for bills doing exactly what you are asking me to do. I have put out statements upon statements.”
As Omar continued, she seemed to get more annoyed at Zonneveld’s question.
“I am, I think, quite disgusted really to be honest that as Muslim legislators we are constantly being asked to waste our time speaking to issues that other people are not asked to speak to because the assumption exists that we somehow support and are for, right?” she said.
“No, there is an assumption. So, I want to make sure the next time someone is in an audience and is looking at me and [other Muslim politicians], that they ask us the proper questions that they will probably ask any member of Congress or any legislator,” she added.
Omar concluded by asking for better treatment from Zonneveld and others, suggesting it’s inappropriate for people to come forward “with an accusation that we might support something that is so abhorrent, so offensive, so evil, so vile.”
“I would like, not just for you, but for everyone to know that if you want us to speak as politicians, American politicians, then you treat us as such,” Omar said.
Although Omar expressed concerns about a 2017 Minnesota House bill that expanded penalties against parents who knowingly subjected their daughters to FGM, she voted in favor of it. The bill was never taken up by the state senate.
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