Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) participates in a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, US, April 10, 2019. (photo credit: JIM BOURG/ REUTERS)
The Alabama GOP supported a resolution calling on Alabama congressional members to expel Rep. Ilhan Omar from congress in its summer session on Saturday. The legislators argued that the resolution was justified under Article 1, Section 5 of the US Constitution, which allows congress to “punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member” and made several charges against the representative.
“Rep. Omar is ungrateful to the United States and the opportunities that have been afforded to her. Anyone that holds contempt for America ought not serve this great nation as a member of Congress,” said Alabama State Rep. Tommy Hanes, who proposed the resolution, in a statement to Fox News.
Rep. Omar responded to the resolution on Twitter:
The resolution said that Rep. Omar “engaged in rhetoric that explicitly runs counter to American values and patriotism,” and went on to say that she “dismissed the 9/11 terror attacks waged by radical Islam on the World Trade Center by stating ‘some people did something.'”
The final clause of the resolution referenced Rep. Omar’s history of criticizing Israel, saying “Rep. Omar has a disturbing record of using anti-Semitic language that includes alleging Jewish money is used to buy American influence regarding its policy toward Israel; Rep. Omar is also a supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign.”
Muslim Advocates, an organization advocating for the American Muslim community, condemned the resolution in a statement by Scott Simpson, who serves as the organization’s Public Advocacy Director.
“Having a state political party officially adopt such a hateful, dishonest resolution is a troubling escalation of the ongoing effort to vilify American Muslims. The text of the resolution reads like a laundry list of the most common anti-Muslim stereotypes: that Rep. Omar is un-American and anti-Semitic, that she disrespects the troops, that she is an ungrateful immigrant and that she sympathizes with terrorists,” Simpson wrote in the statement. “These are not just attacks on Rep. Omar, these are attacks on an entire community,” he added.
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