‘“Fuck them Muslims.”
That’s pretty much how I and many other Muslims believe our elected officials, including many Democrats, feel about 4 million of their fellow Americans. The relative inaction over the latest anti-Muslim hate directed against Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar yet again reveals that 20 years after the 9/11 terror attacks, Islamophobia remains the last refuge and safe space for bigots.
If you think this is an unusually harsh take, just reflect that it’s been two weeks since Rep. Lauren Boebert performed her hateful, anti-Muslim shtick against her colleague Ilhan Omar, telling a rapturous crowd of conservative donors a bullshit story about how she was relieved that Omar wasn’t wearing a backup in the elevator. (A Muslim wearing a backpack must be a suicide bomber, get it?) Boebert tweeted a non-apology, but then followed that up by doubling down and referring to Omar as a terrorist sympathizer. She was egged on by her comrade in hate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said colleagues like Nancy Mace who condemned the hateful rhetoric were “trash in the GOP conference” and fake conservatives.
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Nancy Pelosi again wants to punt the responsibility to Republican leadership to police the extremists in their own party, which its “leaders” have shown no sign of doing. Democrats are also reportedly leery of giving a greater spotlight to Greene and Boebert in the course of punishing them. But they already have the spotlight, and Greene, Boebert, and their fellow hate squad members are already the base of the ever more radicalized Republican party crusading for the right of a white Christian minority to rule.
So Democratic leadership, with its usual courage, haven’t formally done anything about Boebert’s hateful attack. Instead, they are expected to vote next Tuesday on a bill authored by Omar that would create a special envoy within the State Department to monitor the rise of anti-Muslim incidents at home and abroad and combat Islamophobia. Boebert’s GOP colleagues, naturally, responded with mockery and contempt. Rep. Dan Meuser says he can’t support the bill because it doesn’t also include “skinny kids that get picked on.”
Pelosi might as well be waiting for Godot if they expect Republican “leaders” like Rep. Kevin McCarthy to do the right thing. McCarthy, whose impotency is matched by his cowardice, has refused to condemn Boebert, just like he refused to condemn Paul Gosar, who was stripped of his committee assignments by Democrats after posting a violent anime showing his avatar murdering that of AOC.
But progressive members are stepping up and demanding bolder actions to defend Omar and Muslims, and punish Boebert. They want the party to flex its muscle and oust her from her committees because, as Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal put it, “we cannot be complicit as members of this body trample on the fundamental right of religious freedom and put people’s lives in danger.”
If not, says Rep. Jamal Bowman, Democrats will be sending a message “across the country, around the world, that anti-Muslim hate is OK.”
Meanwhile, Omar has held a press conference, where she played one of many terrifying death threats she’s received thanks to Boebert and the other fascist freaks of the GOP putting a target on a progressive, Black Muslim woman who was once a refugee.
This blatant Islamophobia, of course, is to be expected from the GOP. Donald Trump ran on a Muslim Ban and said “I think Islam hates us.” His base zeroed in on Omar, chanting “Send her back,” after he told her Squad of four American congresswomen of color to “go back” and fix their countries. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro once offered that Omar was against the U.S. Constitution because she wore hijab. The party has continued promoting hateful conspiracy theories and manipulated videos and posters supposedly connecting Omar to terrorism and the 9-11 terror attacks.
Muslims, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, expect their elected officials to fight back and defend them as hate crimes against Muslim women in hijab have not only increased but seem to be mainstreamed by the conservative movement. Still, we aren’t surprised by their inaction. We haven’t forgotten that Chuck Schumer fulsomely praised retiring congressman Peter King in 2019 without ever once mentioning his horrible anti-Muslim bigotry, conspiracy theories, and role in spearheading divisive hearings on the supposed radicalization of Muslim Americans. Schumer also threw Omar under the bus at an AIPAC conference when the entire world was utterly obsessed about her “It’s all about the Benjamins” tweet, which was denounced by Pelosi and Democrats. Omar apologized for the tweets, and the House passed a bill condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia even as the antisemitic and Islamophobic “replacement theory” is openly promoted and celebrated by Republican officials and aired almost nightly on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
When I asked Omar last year about this double standard, she replied, “As I said to Chuck Schumer then and will say again: Exactly how much of our pain do you refuse to acknowledge? That wouldn’t take place for any other community in the way in which [King] was hateful towards our community.” She added that it wasn’t about her, but that each time Trump and the GOP say something hateful about her it reflects how they feel about Muslim Americans.
If Omar had similar hateful things against Boebert and Greene, focusing entirely on their religion, would the response be so muted and neutered? Of course not. Both Democrats and Republicans wouldn’t hesitate to strip Omar of her assignments. While this circus is happening, Republicans have blocked the nomination of the eminently qualified Dilawar Syed for a top role at the Small Business Administration, which would make him the highest-ranking Muslim official in the country. Why? Because of his Pakistani heritage and religion.
If Democrats were to do the same to a Republican based on their ethnicity and religion, it would be a 24-7 outrage cycle in conservative and mainstream media and they’d be forced to apologize and likely pay for their bigotry at the polls. When it happens to Muslims like Syed, whose expertise and role would help fledgling businesses in the Rust Belt during a recession, it’s barely a story.
Muslims also have to tolerate liberals laughing it up on Bill Maher’s show, despite his ugly history of blatant anti-Arab and anti-Muslim jokes and commentary. We’re supposed to take it and laugh because he’s allegedly an equal opportunity offender who hates all religions as if that somehow excuses his ignorance and racism towards Muslims.
Ultimately, Democrats have an opportunity to lead and show a nation that bigotry, hate and violence against their Muslim colleagues, and fellow citizens, will not to be tolerated. There’s a deliberate target being placed on the backs of the Squad members by Republicans using them to symbolize their war against women, people of color, immigrants and Muslims in this country.
How Democrats respond is going to reflect whether they include us, who are part of their base, as part and parcel of the expanding American narrative. Do Democrats think Muslim communities deserve to live with peace, security and dignity, or are they going to keep throwing us under the bus and chasing Karen and Chad in the Rust Belt, who’ve since long abandoned them and will never look back except with contempt, mockery, and a racist joke or two?
