Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan says that “Islamophobia” justified anti-Islam bias in Congress is a bipartisan affair, suggesting that in addition to Republicans, some of her Democratic colleagues hold bigoted views about Muslims. (We are soooo happy to hear that not all Democrats are Islam apologists!)
Business Insider (h/t Marvin W) In a profile in The New York Times, Tlaib reflected on her time in Congress so far and particularly on how her identity as both a Muslim woman and a Palestinian has shaped her experiences in ways she hadn’t anticipated. She described encountering both subtle and blatant bigotry when she and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar first arrived in Congress in 2019.
“I guess I was naive,” Tlaib told the Times, “in not understanding how bipartisan Islamophobia is in Congress.” (No, you weren’t naive, Democrats just hide it better)
Tlaib and Somali Omar were the first Muslim women elected to Congress in American history, and are among the progressive “Squad” that includes Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Tlaib said that some colleagues were shocked to learn that most American Muslims are Black, while one colleague touched Omar’s hijab. (Oh, noes! Off with his/her head)
“I think there’s a tremendous amount of fear,” Tlaib told the Times. Tlaib also said that it feels as if her Palestinian identity supersedes other identities and experiences that she has. (It DOES!)
“I feel like no one wants to see me as anyone but Palestinian,” Tlaib told the Times. “I’m a mother, I’m a woman, I have gone through a lot being the daughter of two immigrants in the United States. I’m also the big sister of 13 younger siblings. I’m also a neighbor in a predominantly Black city.” (Because you continue to promote your “Palesitinian” identity)
Both Tlaib and Omar have been targeted with Islamophobic anti-Islam remarks from their colleagues during their time in Congress. Last year, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado joked that Omar was a suicide bomber, prompting calls to remove her from her committee assignments.
Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.
Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
Boebert then called Ilhan Omar, “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 25, 2021
The House later passed Omar’s bill to establish an envoy to combat Islamophobia at the State Department, but not before Republicans mocked her bill during committee hearings.
Rep. Omar’s bill, which she introduced in late October alongside Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, would require the State Department to establish a special envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia.
Here’s Republican Dan Meuser saying he can’t support a bill to combat global violence and hate crimes against Muslim populations because it doesn’t also include “skinny kids that get picked on.”
You can’t make this shit up. pic.twitter.com/7jMEcrafYD
— Jeremy Slevin (@jeremyslevin) December 9, 2021
Both have garnered criticism for being outspoken about Palestinian rights; in September, fellow Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida suggested that Tlaib was anti-Semitic after she deemed Israel to be an “apartheid regime” while speaking out against giving Israel an additional $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have all labeled Israel an apartheid state over the country’s treatment of Palestinians both in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza.
Tlaib told the Times that following Deutch’s remarks, colleagues whispered “Are you OK?” to her. “The whispering needs to stop,” she said, “and they need to speak up and say, ‘That was wrong.'”
Look at the mouth on Tlaib. Last time I saw a mouth like that…. IT had a hook in it. Looking at Tlaib now I know why lion eat their young
I showed that image of Tlaib’s huge pie
hole to my youngest son a couple of years ago. He said, “Is that real?” Probably had nightmares.
Fear of being swallowed up whole, no doubt!
Rashida Tlaib is that kind of person avoided by dogs even if she would wear a cutlet around here neck.
Haha, she says she didn’t realize there was so much anti-Muslim sentiment on both sides of the aisle. Which planet is she from, the muppet.
You ain’t seen nuthin yet!
Taliban Tlaib sure thinks of herself as a ”Palestinian” rather than an American, likes to tell people she lives in a black area, but doesnt think of THAT as Apartheid.
Awful Omar has people believing she is the new face of America, Old Joe thinks the economy is doing great, Nasty Peelosi applauds Old Joe every time he opens his mouth and puts his foot in it, Kackling Kamala explains to the American people that Ukraine is a small country in Europe,Russia, next door, is a much larger country and invaded this small country… and thats not good…. Applause please….
We are screwed folks, the insane are now in charge of the asylum…
I sure am glad to be 74 in a few months, not long for this mad mad world.
Pres. John Adams, in a letter dated February 18, 1809, Letter to Dutch jurist Francis Adrian Van der Kemp (1783-1825) dated December 31, 1808
On Jewish Morality:
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing nations..
I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty Sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
Colonel Kemp: The IDF Did More to Safeguard Civilians Than Any Other Army (full version)
Thanks for my laugh of the day: Rashida Tlaib as a big-mouthed ass!!!! LOLROTF. And then
the follow-up: Lauren Bobert’s joke about being in the elevator with Ilhan Omar, who thankfully has no backpack!
Some of the young new Republican women in Congress are fantastic!
Yeah, I’d say that most people are “bigoted” against murderers.
Rashida Tlaib plays the “Grandma Card,” again
Rashida Tlaib wants to smear Israel. And she is willing to stoop as low as necessary to do so—even lying about her own grandmother.Op-ed.
Stephen M. Flatow
05.03.22 22:21
Isn’t it remarkable how some anti-Israel lies seem to be repeated again and again, and even published in respected newspapers, no matter how many times they have been exposed as false?
In a major New York Times feature this week, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) once again falsely promoted the claim that her grandmother, Mrs. Muftia Tlaib, is persecuted by Israel—when, in reality, Grandma lives under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, not Israel.
Yet Tlaib keeps repeating the lie, and New York Times reporter Rozina Ali either didn’t bother, or didn’t want to, do the elementary fact-checking on Tlaib’s claims.
The narrative of the ‘mistreated grandmother’ —sure to elicit readers’ sympathy— was a major part of the March 3 article. It repeatedly referred to Israel’s supposedly harsh “occupation of the West Bank,” followed by mentions of the fact that Tlaib’s grandmother, Mrs. Muftia Tlaib, “is living in the West Bank.”
The clear implication, again and again, was the Grandma lives under Israeli rule. To strengthen that oppression, the article mentioned that Some years ago, Tlaib “visited the West Bank and saw for herself the walls and checkpoints.”
Of course, Israel’s checkpoints are no more oppressive than the checkpoints that one finds at every airport in the United States, and they serve exactly the same purpose—to catch terrorists. But Congresswoman Tlaib, and her sympathetic Times interviewer, seemed determined to create the impression that cruel Israel is mistreating poor grandma.
The notion that Grandma Tlaib is oppressed by Israel is a lie.
She resides in the Palestinian Arab village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa. Nothing in the article gave readers even the slightest clue that the Israeli occupation of that village ended in 1995. For the past 24 years, Beit Ur al-Fauqa has been governed by the Palestinian Authority.
In the autumn of 1995, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed an agreement with then-PA chairman Yasir Arafat, known as the Oslo II Accord. It provided for the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the territories where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside, including Beit Ur al-Fauqa. The Israelis withdrew. The occupation ended.
Arafat agreed that a portion of the non-residential agricultural land which Beit Ur al-Fauqa claims belongs to it would be assigned to the area under Israeli security control. Prime Minister Rabin requested this arrangement because that area is dangerously close to the Israeli towns of Beit Horon and Givat Ze’ev, and Route 443, a highway where Israeli automobiles are often subjected to Arab terrorist attacks. But the residential portion of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, as well as the rest of the adjacent agricultural land, have been under the rule of the PA for more than two decades now.
Isn’t it remarkable how the Times article in effect rewrote history? No Oslo accords, no Israeli withdrawals, no Palestinian Authority control over 98% of the Palestinian Arabs. None of that ever happened, to judge by the Times and Congresswoman Tlaib.
Ironically, the only oppression Grandma Muftia Tlaib experiences is at the hand of her fellow Palestinian Arabs. The Palestinian Authority refuses to permit Grandma Tlaib and her fellow-residents to vote for their town’s leaders. Beit Ur al-Fauqa has been governed since early 1996 by a group of eleven administrators appointed by the PA. So much for Palestinian democracy.
In addition, Grandma and her neighbors, like all of the Palestinian Arabs who live under PA rule, have not been allowed to vote for their national leadership, either. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is now serving the 17th year of his four year-term. He has accomplished this feat by simply never holding elections for his office.
Ever wonder why Muftia Tlaib’s Granddaughter-the-Congresswoman never acknowledges the PA’s oppression? The answer is obvious: Rashida Tlaib wants to smear Israel. And she is willing to stoop as low as necessary to accomplish that goal—even if it means both lying about her own grandmother and using Grandma as a political weapon. That’s really about as low as you can get. She ought to try her hand at a limbo dance.