(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., expressed her support for a “Somalia First” political agenda at a recent campaign event, the Denver Gazette reported.
The address, which took place at a Minnesota hotel and included numerous Muslim speakers, appears to be the articulation of a new Somalian nationalism in the midst of a Somalian border dispute with Ethiopia.
According to an unverified translation of Omar’s remarks, the congresswoman claimed that “the United State Government will do what I tell them to do about it.”
She also suggested that the American state “must follow our orders. That is how we safeguard the interest of Somalia.”
Omar seemingly argued that Somalians in America need to assert themselves politically in order to change the direction of American foreign policy.
“It’s the confidence that we need to have in ourselves as Somalis,” she claimed.
She also reportedly expressed her support for Somalian sovereignty in the midst of the border dispute, wherein Somaliland–a region within Somali–is attempting to lease out part of its coastal land to Ethiopia.
“Somalia is Somali, Somalia is one, we are brothers, and our lands are indivisible,” she claimed, suggesting that she and other Somalians can use the American international apparatus to secure her preferred ends.
Her reference to “missing lands that we should be getting back” also reportedly suggests that she ascribes to the ideology of Greater Somalia–a genocidal group led by the late dictator Siad Barre, under whose regime Omar’s father served.
Despite her bold claims, it appears that Omar overstated the degree of sway that she possesses in Washington.
Omar was removed last year from the House Foreign Relations Committee due to her lengthy history of anti-American remarks.
“I am Muslim, I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa,” Omar said in response to her ousting.
“Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?”
