‘We should be…creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men,’ said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
She argued Americans “should be more fearful of white men” in a 2018 interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeera.
By: Jeffrey Cimmino
Hasan observed that conservatives would argue that Islamophobia is a product of legitimate fear in the wake of terrorist attacks.
“What would you say to them?” Hasan asked.
“I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country,” Omar replied. “And so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe—Americans safe inside of this country—we should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.”
The comments were first reported by the Daily Wire‘s Molly Prince. This is not the first time Omar has made controversial remarks regarding terrorism. In March, she referred to the 9/11 attacks as “some people did something.”
Omar has also come under fire for anti-Semitic comments.
In February, Omar said she wanted “to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” and doubled-down on her remarks.
House Democratic leaders scrambled to write and pass a resolution condemning various forms of hatred in the wake of her remarks.
Omar had previously drawn scrutiny for separate remarks, and she apologized in early February for anti-Semitic tweets in which she alleged AIPAC pays politicians to be pro-Israel. She also acknowledged a tweet in which she accused Israel of hypnotizing the world and performing evil acts was “unfortunate.”
According to a report on the World Israel News web site, Robert Spencer of the Jihad Watch web site had written on Thursday that “It has become commonplace for Leftists to assert that ‘white nationalists’ are a greater threat to Americans than Islamic jihadis.”
The argument, Spencer writes, stems from a study conducted by the New America Foundation which, he says, “ignored the many, many foiled jihad plots, and the fact that jihadis are part of an international movement that has killed many thousands of people, while right-wingers and white supremacists are not.”
The study is also “based on the number of those killed by jihadis and by right-wing extremists since September 12, 2001, leaving out 9/11,” he adds.
Even so, Spencer writes, “Counting the Orlando jihad massacre, which took place after the study was published, but leaving out 9/11 as the NAF study did, the death toll stood at 76 killed by Islamic jihadis, and 48 by purported right-wing extremists (I repeat ‘purported’ because to get to its count of 48, the NAF counted as ‘right-wing’ attacks killings that were perpetrated by people who were obviously deranged psychopaths devoid of any ideology).” (WFB & WIN)
