Loudly and clearly, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her three Squad teammates — Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — delight in calling themselves “progressives.” That means they favor radical environmentalism, socialized medicine, abortion on demand, cancellation of citizen gun rights, welfare for illegal immigrants, open borders, enormous tax hikes, liberal judicial activism, and more. Each of these causes backed by the Squad offends me. Additionally, her own website contains a personal statement labeled “Ilhan’s Vision” in which she calls for terminating “the capitalist system” by creating government guarantees of jobs, housing, healthcare, and more — all paid for by increasing taxes on the wealthy. I am not wealthy but I am still offended by her progressivism.
It seems that Omar has no respect for mention of the peoples’ rights to “property” as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Fifth and 14th amendments. Nor does she respect the Second Amendment. She did, of course, swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution at her congressional swearing in ceremony. I am offended by her disrespect of property rights, the right to be armed, and her swearing of the solemn oath she obviously intends to ignore.
In speeches and interviews, Omar has repeatedly excused deadly military action employed to harass or harm Israel by the Muslim force known as Hamas. She claims that Americans who support Israel do so “for the Benjamins,” a catchy phrase referring to hundred dollar bills. Anyone else who issued such a slur would immediately be branded an anti-Semite, a label she deserves. She and her fellow Squad members have also called U.S. Border Patrol agents “concentration camp guards.” These statements likewise offend me.
When she was elected to Congress in 2018, Omar became one of the first two Muslim women (along with fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib) to be elected to that body. After her election, the ban on head coverings in the House was changed, and Omar became the first woman to wear a hijab on the House floor. She also took their oath of office on the Quran. Though the Constitution does not require that the oath be taken on a Bible, it does require that an oath be taken to uphold the Constitution, our nation’s highest law. And it is reasonable to ask the extent to which our laws will be changed should America continue its slide away from the Judeo- Christian worldview that provides the moral foundation for our laws.
For instance, could Sharia law — a body of law I find extremely offensive — someday be imposed on America should the Bible become less influential in the political arena and the Quran more so? Could the Omar-supported migration of large numbers of Islamists to the United States help move such a day closer? Ironically, should such a day come about, it will result in the loss of freedom not only for Christians, but for others as well including Muslims. Particularly oppressed will be women (have you thought about this Omar?), who are treated as second-class citizens under Islamic law.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, during her rise to notoriety and election to Congress, Omar has likely been guilty of tax fraud, illegal use of campaign funds to cover travel costs, immigration irregularities involving a phony marriage to her younger brother, and passport fraud. If prosecuted and found guilty of these charges, she should face deportation. Credible evidence regarding all of these matters has been unearthed by several local reporters for years. They sought unsuccessfully to get the Star-Tribune, the area’s largest newspaper, to publish anything related to her flaunting of laws. Finally these charges are receiving the attention they deserve. Do I find such conduct offensive? Of course.
I expect that most backers of Congresswoman Omar sent her to Congress without knowledge of just how radical she truly is. The same applies to most backers of Omar’s fellow Squad members, as well as most backers of others in Congress who are working to install socialism in America that would kill freedom. That certainly offends me, and I hope it offends many more in this country where freedom, now increasingly threatened, has stimulated more prosperity and more liberty than anywhere else on earth.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
