Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) forces the country to confront the demonization of people of Islamic faith and what it’s meant to their communities. She recently came under fire for an impassioned speech defending those of her faith, asking that people see the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center as “some people who did something” rather than being representative of an entire religious group of over a billion people.
U.S. Navy veteran and Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) was one of the Republicans who took offense to Omar’s statement, saying that it minimized the catastrophic event. If Omar’s statement is plucked completely out of context, he’s correct. The terrorists who attacked our country on 9/11 certainly did something, and that something resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.
However, Ocasio-Cortez’s statement about white supremacy and the terror they spread forces people like Crenshaw and all of the others who are criticizing Omar to face a similar scenario. If all Muslims are evil because of the 9/11 attackers, is it fair then to say that all white men are evil because of the rising global threat of white nationalism that has resulted in shootings, bombings, burned churches, and thousands of deaths? Should white people, or Christians, or all men be stigmatized in response to those actions?
Of course not. Just like the terrorists on September 11, 2001, the white nationalists spreading terror across the globe are people who do things, not entire religious or ethnic groups.
Twitter had mixed reactions to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, but many stood in support of both the New York congresswoman and Rep. Omar. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
