‘I truly believe that Ilhan Omar is doing irreparable harm to her district, to Minnesota, and to the whole country…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) An Iraqi-born Muslim is running for the Republican nomination in Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district in Minnesota, characterizing herself as a patriotic Muslim American who wants what’s best for the country, unlike Omar.
“I chose to launch this campaign after thinking, watching and researching,” said Dalia al Aqidi, according to the Washington Examiner.
“I truly believe that Ilhan Omar is doing irreparable harm to her district, to Minnesota, and to the whole country,” she continued.
“Somebody needs to stop her. She continues to spread anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric.”
Al Aqidi came to the U.S. as a refugee just like Omar. Her family fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq when she was in her early 20s, and she went on to become an American citizen.
Though their situations were similar, al Aqidi said that instead of showing gratitude to the country that saved her, Omar has spread “toxic” and “severe” ideas.
Omar wants to “gain attention for herself” and “position herself as a celebrity,” al Aqidi said, which is why she touts anti-Semitic and anti-American rhetoric. “She’s not fighting for us. She’s not fighting for her district. She is fighting for herself and herself only, which means she’s fighting against us,” al Aqidi said.
Before al Aqidi decided to run for Congress, she was a television journalist, and she previously worked as a White House correspondent for different Middle Eastern television networks.
As a result, al-Aqidi said that her primary concern is “national security,” especially when it comes to the “dangerous individuals, both Islamists and others,” who are “trying to harm the U.S. and are trying to harm our system and harm our democracy.”
Instead of fighting this extremism, Omar is enabling it, al Aqidi said in a statement.
“I’ve seen up close the consequences of what radical Ilhan Omar is doing,” she said. “Conflict. Division. Oppression. I escaped that world once, and I won’t let it happen here.”