Recently, U.S. politician Ilhan Omar was in the news due to her meeting with Rahul Gandhi. Many criticized Rahul Gandhi for this meeting since she is known for her extreme anti-Indian stance.
In this Article, we will discuss who Ilhan Omar is and why some believe Rahul Gandhi should not have met her. Ilhan Omar is a U.S. representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, comparable to an Indian Lok Sabha MP.
Omar was not born in the U.S.; she is a Muslim immigrant. She was born in Somalia in 1982 to a Sunni Muslim family. Her father was a colonel in the army of Somali dictator Siad Barre, who launched a genocide against the Isaaq tribe in Somaliland.
The genocide killed an estimated 200,000 people, and there are claims that her father was involved in these atrocities.
In 1990, Omar and her family fled Somalia to escape the Somali Civil War. They secured asylum in the U.S. and arrived in New York in 1995.
In one of his speeches, Donald Trump accused Omar of marrying her own brother, a U.S. citizen, to gain U.S. citizenship. This claim has been a subject of controversy.
In 2016, Omar became a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from District 60B, which can be compared to an MLA in the Indian context. In 2020, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where 25% of her district’s population consists of immigrants.
Ideologically, Omar is associated with radical Islamist views and has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. She is known for her opposition to two countries: Israel and India. Conversely, she supports Palestine and Pakistan.
Omar believes that Jews have no right to exist on this earth and claims that India has forcefully occupied Kashmir, which she argues belongs to Pakistan.
In 2022, she introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives advocating for India to be designated as a ‘Country of Particular Concern,’ based on findings from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Since 2013, an NGO known as the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), which has affiliations with Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami, has been funding USCIRF to list India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ in order to push for U.S. sanctions against India.
Before Prime Minister Modi’s speech at the U.S. Congress, Omar released a statement saying:
“What’s happening in India runs directly counter to our democratic values. Dissidents, journalists, and their families are targeted with violence and political persecution.”
In 2022, Omar visited Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on the invitation of the Pakistani army, where she called for U.S. intervention in the Kashmir conflict.
She also urged the U.S. government to criticize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration on human rights issues.
Last year, Rahul Gandhi met Ajit Sahi, IAMC’s advocacy director, who is associated with funding reports against India. This year, he met with Ilhan Omar. These meetings raise questions about Rahul Gandhi’s objectives: Is he acting in India’s interest, or otherwise?
Additionally, last year, Rahul Gandhi met Sunita Viswanath, the Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), an organization connected to anti-India forces. Gandhi’s engagement with HfHR, which organized an event he attended in the USA, suggests deeper connections.
Omar has been criticized for her sympathy towards ISIS. She initiated the broadcasting of the Muslim call to prayer (Azaan) five times a day on loudspeakers in Minnesota. Trump has called for her to return to Somalia, and she has expressed strong pro-immigrant views, advocating for immigrants to play a significant role in U.S. governance. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Last year, Omar was removed from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee due to her comments about Israel. Israel has also banned her entry. Despite her well-known stance against both Israel and India, many Indians remain unaware of her, even as Indian Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi held a friendly meeting with her.
What can one say?
