MINNEAPOLIS — Rep. Ilhan Omar has stayed in the national and international spotlight consistently in recent months, with intense controversy stirred up by some of her comments.
One of the most fury-inducing moments for some: Omar speaks to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and uses the words “some people did something" to describe the 2001 terrorist attack. President Donald Trump retweets a video that shows a snippet of Omar's speech, along with news footage of the planes hitting the Twin Towers. Trump tweets the words, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”
Omar faces a barrage of backlash, including a New York Post cover with a picture of the flaming towers and the words, “Here’s your something.”
In fuller context, Omar told CAIR in Los Angeles that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the attacks, and she advocated for activism.
"For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it," she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. "CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."
CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.
Thursday, Omar sat down one-on-one with KARE 11’s Jana Shortal, to talk about 9/11.
9/11
Shortal: You are speaking at a fundraiser for CAIR, describing the 9/11 terrorist attack that killed 2,977 people and you said “some people did something.” What did you mean?
Omar: You’ll see oftentimes that a horrific event like 9/11 would happen where a few awful terrorists attack us, attack any nation and then people like the president and others will use that incident to paint a whole faith as being awful. And so in my speech I was talking about how our civil liberties as Muslims was being eroded after the horrific attacks of 9/11. And for people to suggest that I do not have an ability to understand, I mean I was 18 years old when that happened. I was in a classroom in college and I remember rushing home after being dismissed and getting home and seeing my father in complete horror as he sat in front of that TV and I remember just feeling like the world was ending. And that’s not a feeling that I had, that’s a feeling every single person who can comprehend any sense of pain felt. And for many Muslims in this country, as we looked to our neighbors for comfort and to also comfort them, we were also now being treated as suspects. And so that is the conversation I was talking about. I think for many Muslims the conversation about our treatment as a second-class citizens in the ways we have been surveilled and they ways that we have been demonized, has not really been one that we have been able to have publicly and I wouldn’t really be doing justice for the position of influence that I am in if I don’t ignite a conversation that is about what goes wrong in a society when we decide to vilify a whole faith, a whole group of people. Every country that witnesses anything like that has always had the ability to have that conversation and separate the terrorists from the people who might share a faith with them, or might share a culture with them and it is an important conversation for us to have here.
Shortal: Some people are offended by those four words. They suggest that you were not describing that day accurately, as they were just some people. What would you say to that?
Omar: I mean people are offended by everything I say. Right? I think that there is a particular bias and a particular lens that people sort of critique the words that I use and that is not a bias and a lens I could get rid of with one answer or with one conversation. I think people will have an opportunity to critique and all I ask for them is to give me, I think, the kind of critiques that they would give anybody.
Shortal: The way that you just described 9/11 and your experience with it suggests to me that it is more to you than “some people did something.” It was a big deal.
Omar: Yeah, I mean to some people it’s easy for them to not think of me as an American, as someone who would have the same exact feelings as they did as we were being attacked on American soil.
Shortal: And you did have the same feelings?
Omar: I did. And that is really the essence of the conversation I was having. We did have. We felt the attack. We were attacked. And in return we were treated and continue to be treated as suspects, and it’s not OK. And it’s about time we say it’s not OK.
Shortal: How do you feel about the events of 9/11?
Omar: The events of 9/11 were life-changing, life-altering for all of us. I mean, this was I think one of the most horrific terrorist attacks that we have lived through. I mean, at least for me. And I think to this day, many of us could not imagine how something like that could take place on American soil. And many of us recognized that the work that we needed to do in making sure that terrorist attacks like that don't happen. And so my feeling around it is one of complete horror. It's one that, like I said, in a second I can go back to that feeling, not just of me, but of my father, and really understand how none of us are ever going to forget that day and the trauma that we will always have to live with. And how, I think, the lives that all of us would have led have been altered, because of that single act of horrific violence towards us.
Shortal: I couldn't count that high, but you said "we" and "us" several times in that answer. Who are "we" and "us?”
Omar: "We is the American people, and "us" is the American people.
Full Q&A: