Trump v. Elhan Omar .. New chapters of incitement against Muslims

Mai Malkawi-Washington

The debate is still raging over US President Donald Trump's chant against Congressman Elhan Omar, whom US activists have seen as linking Muslims again to the events of September 11, 2001 and inciting violence against them and the Muslim MP.

Elhan Omar, on her official Web site, responded to Trump's attack by saying she did not run for Congress to remain silent or stand on the sidelines and that no one could threaten her "unconditional love" of the United States.

Last Friday, the president published a tweet containing news footage of the Sept. 11 attacks, along with a clip from a speech last month that Elhan described as "some people did something." Trump commented, "We will never forget."

She received a screech of comments from the angry and rejecting, calling Trump racist and accusing him of targeting the Muslim MP and threatened or subjected to murder, and saw some as a new call to hurt Muslims and kill them.

The silence of the Democrats
The Democratic Party - of which Elhan Omar belongs - has been silent about what is going on. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not mention Rep. Elhan Omar in a tweet in reply to Trump: "The September 11 anniversary is sacred, Respectfully, the president should not use painful images of these events to launch a political attack. "

Rebecca Philkommerson, chief executive of the Jewish organization Voices for Peace, wrote in a tweet: "Everyone - the Democratic Party leaders, who are very keen to put Elhan under surveillance - needs to voice loudly against racial incitement to Trump-led violence."

"Why should not we ask Muslims to condemn terrorism," said Todd Greene, a former adviser to the State Department on Islamophobia and author of the supposed "culprit".

"The artificial argument surrounding the statements of Elhan Omar on Sept. 11 is based on the belief that Muslims, by their very nature, believe in sympathy for terrorists and violence and are therefore complicit in the September 11 attacks," he said in a tweet on Twitter.

Nihad Awad, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), assured Al Jazeera Net that MP Elhan Omar was speaking at the annual Los Angeles Convention on Civil Rights, the role of Muslims in America and the political growth of the organization, and that her speech was clearly taken out of context and added to the video accompanying Trump .

Awad pointed out that Elhan Omar was a new opposition voice in Congress, and Trump was not used to a black Muslim woman and veiled minority representing a challenge to the policy of immigrants.

"Trump has officially adopted the wrong argument linking Islam and Muslims to the events of September 11. Trump was able to legitimize Islamophobia and gave extremists the green light to incite against Muslims and to believe that it is legal to be seen as enemies And opponents of American culture and law. "

Campaign County
The Yemeni-American Merchants Association announced its boycott of Arab and Muslim merchants and food shops for the New York Post, which posted on its front page on Saturday morning a picture of the events of September 11 and a reference to Representative Elhan.

"We will teach them a lesson that is not racist in New York City or in America in general," said Iyad al-Qubaili, a defense lawyer at Al-Jazeera.net. "It was not the first time that the newspaper published inflammatory news against Muslims, but this last step came at a time Islamophobia reached its highest level.

Yemeni merchants represent five to six thousand shops in New York alone. Al-Kubaili confirmed that the boycott would directly affect the newspaper's sales, calling on traders not to sell them in their shops so as not to incite violence against the Muslim community as a whole.

"Our goal is not to harm the newspaper, just as it sends a message to everyone that we do not accept that hatred spreads in the streets of New York and we will not promote it in our shops," he said.

On Sunday afternoon, the association called for a press conference in front of the New York media area to invite all traders to participate in the boycott campaign.

Several US newspapers have published reports about Trump's glee, the boycott of Yemeni merchants by the New York Post, and interviews with US Muslim activists at various levels.

"The Last Show" hosted MP Elhan Omar, who spoke of her intention not to be silent about what Trump published and that she was not elected to remain silent. A few days ago, a person in New York was arrested and threatened to kill a Muslim MP.