Call me crazy, but I’m going to guess the chances of this happening are pretty low.
Ilhan Omar posted this to Twitter yesterday, asking President Trump to help work toward freeing someone named Hoda Abdelmonem.
I recently met with @jkbadawy and @thefreedomi to talk about Hoda Abdelmonem, a political prisoner in Egypt. I hope that Trump brings up her case in his meeting with the regime that has imprisoned her. We must work to #FreeHoda. pic.twitter.com/3KMPNd4Kfb
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) April 2, 2019
Who exactly is Hoda Abdelmonem? It turns out that she’s a lot more than just a “political prisoner,” as Omar describes her in the above tweet.
https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1113184919784689666
Abdelmonem was not low level either. She’s described as a senior member of the “Muslim Sisters,” which is the female wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Like much of the Middle East’s conflicts, there’s no clear “good guy” in the battle over Egypt’s internal politics. Regardless, it’s an objective fact that the Muslim Brotherhood promotes Islamism. That is, they support Islamic fundamentalism, not in just in their religious views but also at the political and legal levels. During Obama’s tenure, he sought to empower the Muslim Brotherhood and it turned into an abject disaster. Egypt’s military eventually had to remove Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi as the people rose up to protest his increasing authoritarianism and Egypt’s decent into Islamism.
So why is a U.S. Representative taking to social media to promote a Muslim Brotherhood member’s release? That’s a big question obviously.
I know we aren’t supposed to question Ilhan Omar’s motives because that makes you Islamophobic in today’s simplistic political scene, but her actions continue to bewilder. Since she’s taken office, she’s spent the vast majority of her time and political capital fighting for questionable interests. Whether it be her constant attacking of Israel, her fundraising for groups tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, or her shilling for Iran. In the same vein, what drives her to have such public outbursts antisemitism?
In regards to Abdelmonem, it’s logical to ask exactly why Omar sees an Islamist in Egypt as a priority. It’s also relevant to ask why she supports oppressive dictators like Maduro in Venezuela, even criticizing the U.S. for simply providing humanitarian aid? What is it about her world-view that causes her to hold and prioritize such positions? If President Trump were championing the release of a person who was a member of a white supremacist group, it would be national news and used as proof he’s a racist. Such a reaction would be completely justified. Rep. Omar should be held to the same standards.
If the media can spend two years asking whether Trump is a Russian agent, I think it’s fair game to question what exactly Ilhan Omar’s angle is here and why it’s acceptable.
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