Ilhan Omar… Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia?

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s recent remarks about Israel’s involvement in US affairs has sparked outrage in our government. In one of her statements to Congress, she said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Without ever attacking Jews or Judaism itself, she has been labelled as “anti-Semitic.” Pro-Israel lobbying groups quickly went up in arms to attack her, and multiple people have called for her to be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee. President Trump even tweeted a response in which he called her comments reflective of a “dark day for Israel.” A picture of Omar has gone viral that depicts her in front of the burning buildings from 9/11.

Despite receiving an inordinate amount of criticism, Omar has not retracted her comments or stepped down from her position on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Plenty of Democrats have voiced their opinions against her, despite belonging to the same party. Several days after Omar’s remarks, a resolution was passed to denounce anti-Semitism and overall hate, which includes anti-Muslim rhetoric as well.

I recently spoke to someone who highlighted something I had never thought of before. When someone says something against Jews or Judaism, they are labelled as anti-Semitic. The use of the prefix “anti” indicates that the person who is committing the action is in the wrong. They are against something that they should not be against. When there is anti-Muslim rhetoric; however, it is most often labelled as Islamophobic. The suffix “phobia” implies that it is not necessarily wrong for someone to be against Islam. In fact, the use of this term categorizes Islam as something to be afraid of, like the dark or spiders. A person who is Islamophobic is seen as a good person who is rightly afraid of something, whereas an anti-Semite is a bad person who is against something good. The usage of these terms are not an accident, and it is clear that there are political associations with both words.

Ilhan Omar brought to light an important matter concerning our country’s undying loyalty to a foreign nation, yet she was attacked for doing so. The U.N. recently found that Israel intentionally shot children, journalists, and the disabled during protests in Gaza; yet, we see more outrage when someone questions our national loyalty than the murder of innocent people. It is clear that there is a major issue with the way that the US blindly supports Israel and its policies, and I hope that Ilhan Omar will not be the last one to call attention to this problem.

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What Are We Doing?

Seriously…what are we doing? Are we ready to talk about what’s happening to this country? Like, REALLY talk about it?

These last few days, this last week, month, two years, have been tiring to say the least. Democrats won control of the House – that’s great – but are they going to make effective use of their political gain? The win is not progress enough, something real and tangible needs to happen. 

In the last few weeks, bombs were mailed to Trump’s political opponents. Black people were targeted and murdered in a grocery store after the shooter couldn’t get into a church. Eleven Jewish people were killed in yet another shooting that was not only en masse, but an anti-Semitic hate crime. A mass shooting at a yoga studio. The individual callout of each Republican who did not support Trump lost their seat. Trump completely disregarded the reality of the election outcomes. Not to mention, forcing Jeff Sessions to resign… 

I can’t even begin to detail the laundry list of other hate-filled heinous acts or misguided (at the least) political bungles that have occurred on both small and large scale since the beginning of Trump’s Presidency. Can we talk about Trump’s rhetoric, what it’s doing to this country, and why half the country seems to have no qualms with the lack of morality and ethics left? Yes, the win Tuesday night is progress for Democrats, it’s moving forward and that’s terrific. But the long haul is not close to over and winning the House is not enough. If we don’t deal with what is really happening, we have a long road and a dim future ahead.