According to the FBI, Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar represents the terrorist recruitment capital of the United States.
As reported by Fox News:
More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.
Geez.
During that period, 45 Somalis left Minnesota to join either ISIS (based in Iraq and Syria) or the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab. Additionally, as of 2018, a dozen had been apprehended by authorities while trying to leave in order to support ISIS.
No other American area of Muslim refugee resettlement scores nearly as high.
Authorities are worried:
So what has made the area such a hotbed for such activity? And what has been Rep. Ilhan Omar’s record in addressing the issue — either before she was elected, or since?
The answers matter because federal authorities say they remain “highly concerned” about the terrorist connection with the Minneapolis Somalis – even though al-Shabab is struggling against the Somali government, and the so-called ISIS “caliphate” has crumbled under a sustained U.S.-led military campaign.
One official told Fox the area’s turn toward ISIS was particularly shocking:
“We are very conscious that there may still be fertile ground for that, and that is could re-start at any time. Based on historical experience, we had (an uptick) in 2007 and 2008 going for al-Shabab, then a lull. Then, as ISIS came back, we saw a whole bunch of people no longer headed for Somalia. They were headed for Iraq and Syria. That really caught us off-guard, we didn’t see that coming. It didn’t make sense to us. We understood why kids were going back to Somalia, but going to Syria was another we issue.”
What’s Ilhan Omar’s place in all this? Is she making matters worse?
In 2015 — when the left-wing politician was a state representative — six Somalis were arrested trying to sneak into Mexico and join ISIS. In response, she wrote a letter to the judge — asking for “compassion” along with a lighter sentence for one of the men.
Rudolph Atallah, former Africa Counterterrorism Director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, claimed a disturbing misunderstanding of America on the part of Ilhan:
“Rep. Omar is asking for our justice system to support known terrorists, this sets an extremely poor precedence and should not be allowed. She clearly has a bias and an agenda and does not understand what the United States truly stands for.”
What of the intersection of terrorism and anti-Semitism? As I covered in January, she previously tweeted a prayer to Allah to break the world from Israel’s spell (here).
The media has hailed Ilhan’s election, which serves to create a more diverse landscape in the legislature. Her district voted her in, and there is nothing more American than democracy. Except for, perhaps, liberty. Let’s hope she understands that, above all. It’s liberty which makes America worth fighting for, and never fighting against. If she’s certain of our nation’s greatness, may she not only represent the 5th district; may she lead. And if not, next time around, may she lose.
