The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would create “a special envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia and include state-sponsored anti-Muslim violence in the department’s annual human rights reports,” according to Reuters.
The bill comes amid accusations by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that Islamaphobia is out of control around the world, even as the GOP says that Omar is affiliated with Islamic terror groups.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has called Omar a member of the “Jihad Squad” and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., suggested recently that Omar was potentially a suicide bomber, according to Politico.
Why did the House just pass a bill to combat Islamophobia for Ilhan Omar while ignoring her anti-Semitic behavior?
?
— Paul A. Szypula (@Bubblebathgirl) December 15, 2021
However the vitriol goes both ways after Omar was previously and repeatedly accused of using anti-Semitic rhetoric.
In 2019, Omar was condemned for anti-Semitic rhetoric that implied that monied interest was buying support for Israel in the United States.
“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,” Omar said about the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the allegiance of American Jews according to USAToday.
She followed up later writing, “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.”
The fracas led some to demand that Omar be stripped of her committee assignments as a punishment.
“The issue is her repeated suggestion that support for the current policy toward Israel is the product of Jewish money buying support and/or Jews who are more loyal to Israel’s interests than they are to those of the United States,” wrote Henry Olson in the Washington Post.
Instead, Democrats watered down a proposed condemnation of Omar’s anti-Semitic comments into a generally worded “condemnation of hate speech to include groups like Native Americans, the LGBTQ community and immigrants,” according to Politico that was instead directed at then-president Trump.
However, Omar and her allies may not have won yet as the legislation passed this week now moves to the Senate, where it will face much tougher opposition.
