Hundreds Protest Ilhan Omar Speech to CAIR-Los Angeles

Ilhan Omar (Tom Brenner / Getty)
Tom Brenner / Getty
Joel B. Pollak

Hundreds of protesters gathered across the street from the Hilton hotel in Woodland Hills, California — and some unfurled banners from hotel balconies — to oppose Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who addressed a fundraiser for the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR claims to speak for American Muslims, but is an extremist group.

As Breitbart news has noted:

In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).

In addition:

The political action committee of CAIR in California donated the maximum of $5,000 to Omar’s 2018 campaign.

In 2015, CAIR’s Los Angeles director suggested that the U.S. was partly to blame for the San Bernardino terror attack, in which 14 people were killed, due to American foreign policy. CAIR also offered legal assistance to the family of the terrorists who carried out the attack.

Omar spoke at the fundraiser after several weeks of controversy over her use of antisemitic rhetoric to attack Israel and American supporters of Israel. She was appointed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, despite having claimed that Israel had “hypnotized the world,” among other antisemitic statements. In February, she claimed, falsely, that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) bribed members of Congress to support Israel. She was forced to apologize, but then claimed Americans who support Israel owe “allegiance to a foreign country,” and refused to apologize. House Democrats passed a weak resolution that condemned all forms of hatred, without mentioning her name or singling out antisemitism.

The protesters at Saturday’s event waved American and Israeli flags. At one stage, banners, placed by activist Laura Loomer, were unfurled from two balconies, reading “Ilhan Hates Israel” and “CAIR Hates Jews.”

Though some journalists who had tried to gain access to the event itself complained that they had not been allowed in, video emerged Saturday night of part of Omar’s remarks, in which she claimed the protesters were prejudiced against Islam and Muslims:

That theme was repeated by supporters of CAIR and Omar:

But some Muslims — including some Somali leaders in the 5th congressional district of Minnesota, which Omar represents — have condemned her rhetoric and say it does not represent them.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.