[UPDATED] Radical Democrat Congressmuslim Ilhan Omar (D-MN) claims that the Republican led push to kick her off the House Foreign Affairs Committee is rooted in so-called “Islamophobia”

The Hill Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Sunday said some Republicans are “OK with Islamophobia” in response to questions about efforts by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to block her from continuing to sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pledged to force a vote on removing her from the influential panel, where she has held a seat since she was first sworn in as a member of Congress in 2019. 

Omar has made several antisemitic comments relating to American support of Israel. She has since apologized for the remarks and said on Sunday that “I might have used words at the time that I didn’t understand were trafficking in antisemitism.” (HAH!)

“To insinuate that I knowingly said these things, when people have read into my comments to make it sound as if I have something against the Jewish community, is so wrong.’

“And so these people are OK with Islamophobia. They’re OK with trafficking in their own ways in antisemitism. They are not OK with having a Muslim have a voice on that committee,” Omar said.

McCarthy targeted Omar, the first Somali Muslim and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, for removal from Foreign Affairs. He also booted Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee.

Omar’s removal requires a vote by the entire chamber, while Swalwell’s and Schiff’s removals could be made by McCarthy alone due to rules around the Intelligence Committee.

Omar also pointed to Mr McCarthy’s defence of other GOP representatives who were previously criticized for making Islamophobic comments about her, such as Representative Lauren Boebert, who once suggested the Minnesota congresswoman could be a suicide bomber.

“You remember Donald Trump coming into my state and saying, ‘Muslims, Somali refugees are infiltrating our country.’ You remember [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene [R-Ga.] coming to Congress after [Rep.] Rashida [Tlaib (D-Mich.)] and I got sworn in and saying, ‘Muslims are infiltrating Congress.’

You remember [Rep. Lauren] Boebert [R-Colo.] saying that I was a terrorist. What did McCarthy do? He said, ‘She apologized, and we don’t have to worry about her Islamophobia. That never happened,’” Omar said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

UPDATE Republicans say they have votes to oust Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee, despite public grumblings from a handful of GOP lawmakers about such a floor vote.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana told reporters Tuesday the GOP leadership team has been talking to its members and pointing out issues related to blocking Ms. Omar from the foreign affairs panel and the differences versus when the Democrats used their majority to strip Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona of their committee assignments last Congress.

“Number one, they went after Marjorie Taylor Greene for things that she had said before she was a member of Congress, that she denounced before she was a member of Congress,” Mr. Scalise said. “It was very personal, and they removed her from every committee. Even if Omar were to be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee, she‘d still be allowed to serve on other committees.”

He added, “If Omar is concerned about being removed, [it would] probably be good if you would ask herwhy she voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene and Gosar from their committees.”

In addition to her anti-Semitic remarks and mockery of 9/11, she equated the U.S. military and the Israeli security forces … to Hamas … claiming it to others inside the Middle East,” he said.