On November 3, at a political rally with Bernie Sanders in Minneapolis, Ilhan Omar exclaimed that she was happy to have endorsed, and to campaign for, a candidate who “will fight against Western imperialism and fight for a just world.”
One would like to know what Omar meant by “Western imperialism.” The Americans never had an imperial empire; they never turned the Philippines and Cuba, that they had won in the Spanish-American War, in 1898, into colonies; there was no large-scale settlement of Americans in either place. There never has been an American colony in Africa; Liberia was not an American colony, but rather was intended to be an independent state populated by former slaves. The only place in the Americas where the United States has not a colony but a “territory” is Puerto Rico. Far from being exploited by American imperialists, Puerto Rico receives $21 billion a year from the American government. The Puerto Ricans apparently do not feel they are victims of American “imperialism” who demand independence – in 2018, 500,000 of them voted for statehood, while only 7,000 wanted independence.
Perhaps Ilhan Omar was thinking of the British as the quintessential “Western imperialists.” But the British Empire is long gone. The British pulled completely out of what is present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in 1947. They are nowhere else, as an imperial power, in Asia, including Hong Kong, which they turned over to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. In the Middle East, the British were in Iraq only as holders of the Mandate, tasked with guiding that country to full independence, as was achieved in 1932. The British also helped create the Emirate of Transjordan, which was never a British colony. There was a small British garrison in what was called the Crown Colony of Aden, but there were no “British colonists” in evidence; Aden was merely an entrepot to resupply ships going to and from India. In South America, the colony of British Guiana became independent in 1966. British Honduras, another colony, became independent, as the country of Belize, in 1981. In Africa, all of Britain’s former colonies, with one exception, had received their independence by 1968. That one exception was Southern Rhodesia, which received its independence, and a new name – Zimbabwe – in 1980. What examples of British imperialism does Ilhan Omar have in mind? Bermuda? Anguilla? Two tiny vacation spots that are not exploited by British colonials, but profit handsomely from Western tourism? Does she really think those islands would want to sever their ties to Great Britain?
Or could Omar be thinking of the French “imperialists”? Where are those French colonies that so offend her? The French left their last colony in North Africa, Algeria, in 1962, nearly 58 years ago. The vast territories of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa were given their independence by 1960. Perhaps Ilhan Omar has some vague notion that the French still rule these lands. As for the two Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and the two even smaller islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, these are not colonies, but juridically parts of France itself, with full representation in the French Parliament.
There is one great imperialism that we can be sure Ilhan Omar does not recognize. This is the imperialism of the Muslim Arabs, who not only managed to conquer many lands and many peoples, but to impose their religion, and even their ethnic identity, on those peoples. Many of those peoples who converted to Islam, whether willingly, or out of a desire to escape the onerous conditions imposed on them as dhimmis (tolerated non-Muslims under Muslim rule), were so eager to identify with their conquerors, that that they took Arab names, and in some cases, assumed as well the name “Sayyid,” which meant they were declaring themselves to be descendants of Muhammad’s own tribe, the Quraysh. That is why the writer V. S. Naipaul, the scholar of Islam Anwar Sheikh, and many others have described Islam as the most successful imperialism in history, because those who are its victims identify completely with those victimizing them. Naipaul writes about this in Among the Believers — the Pakistanis, Malays, and Indonesians who , he discovered, all want to be “little Arabs.”
This desire makes sense. After all, the Message of Allah was delivered in Arabic, and to a 7th-century Arab. Ideally, the Qur’an must be read and recited in Arabic. Muslims who prostrate themselves in prayer must always turn toward Mecca, in Arabia. They make the Hajj, too, to the same city of Mecca, again in Arabia. As a consequence of all this, Arabs enjoy the highest prestige among Islamic peoples, and non-Arab Muslims seek to identify with them.
Many of those victims of Muslim Arab imperialism were taught to regard their own pre-Islamic histories as of no interest or significance; they dismissed those pasts as belonging to the Jahiliyya, the Time of Ignorance. A good example of this is the singular lack of interest shown by Muslim Pakistanis in the spectacular remains of Mohenjo-Daro, which dates from 2500 B.C., and is one of the world’s earliest major cities. But it is from the pre-Islamic times of ignorance, and consequently is of no significance to Muslims.
Among those conquered by Muslim Arabs, many people replaced their indigenous languages with Arabic; speakers of Coptic in Egypt, Aramaic in Syria, and Tamazight in North Africa have noticeably decreased over the centuries. Even after the conquered peoples converted to Islam, as non-Arabs they were regarded as inferior. The Berbers in North Africa, the region’s original inhabitants, today suffer from Arab cultural supremacism within their own lands, where their language, Tamazight, for a long time was prohibited from being taught or recognized as an official language – now it can again be taught in a few schools – and Berber culture continues to be suppressed. The Kurds, too, though Muslim, have been on the receiving end of Arab imperialism, that reached its apotheosis in Saddam Hussein’s murderous Anfal campaign, when his Arab soldiers murdered 182,000 Kurds.
Many may not know that the greatest mass murder in history was that conducted by Muslims in India, during several centuries of Mughal rule, when 70-80 million Hindus were killed. Those Hindus who chose to convert were the ancestors of today’s Muslims in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Does Ilhan Omar even know how Islam spread, through conquest, in India, and how many Hindus were its victims, and how many converted to Islam to avoid being killed? Perhaps she can be asked publicly about these matters; her display of ignorance will be most telling..
Where else do we see Muslim imperialism on display? Wherever Muslims are murdering non-Muslims in order to increase their own power, as with Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, or with Muslims killing Copts in Egypt. These are attempts to strike terror in the hearts of non-Muslims, and if possible, to frighten some to convert, and to seize the lands, and sometimes to murder, those who refuse. Muslim imperialism is on the march, in a different way, even within European countries. Muslims have managed to carve out for themselves many No-Go areas, where non-Muslims fear to tread, and firemen enter only with police protection, and the police themselves enter only in groups. It’s a new kind of imperialism, where the conquerors enter not as armed invaders, but as economic migrants, then begin to live, just as Western imperialists used to do, off the indigenous peoples in the countries they conquered. They do this without having to conquer others with weapons. Merely by being allowed to live in these Infidel lands in Europe, they find they can have every conceivable benefit lavished upon them: free or subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, unemployment benefits, family allowances. The huge sums transferred to these Muslim migrants by the state can be seen as a new form of imperialism, where one people lives off of another, in a conquest that is conducted through non-violent means, perfected by those Muslims who have been allowed to settle deep behind what they have always been taught are enemy lines, the lines of Dar al-Harb. This Islamic imperialism is just as effective as imperialist conquest in the classic sense, and is all the more dangerous for not being recognized by its victims for what it is.
A few questions might be addressed to the self-assured Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is so eager to fight alongside Bernie Sanders against “Western imperialism.”
Ms. Omar, can you give us examples of “Western imperialism” today that you think need to be addressed? Just to refresh your memory, the last American quasi-colony, the Philippines, received its full independence in 1946. Puerto Rica is a territory, not an exploited colony; it receives $21 billion in aid from the American government each year; in 2017, 97% of Puerto Ricans voted for statehood; that certainly suggests they do not feel exploited by the United States. The last two British colonies of any size, Southern Rhodesia and British Honduras (now Belize), received their independence in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The small city-state of Hong Kong that was by then the very last Crown Colony was turned over to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, much to the regret of its inhabitants. The last French colony to receive independence was Algeria, in 1962. A handful of tiny French islands – Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Pierre and Miquelon — are now politically fully part of France, sending delegates to the French Parliament. So we remain puzzled about your determination to fight a non-existent “Western Imperialism.” Please tell us what you had in mind.
Ilhan Omar might consider abandoning her attempt to find examples of that “Western Imperialism” that so concerns her and to consider other imperialisms, outside the West. She might look into the Muslim Arabs who have not only conquered many peoples outside of Arabia during the past 1,400 years, but have convinced those peoples to identify completely with their conquerors, the Arabs, even taking Arab names upon conversion, and in some cases, assuming the name “Sayyid” in order to identify themselves as descendants of the tribe of the Prophet.
Does she recognize the conquest by Muslim Arabs of many lands and peoples as “imperialism,” or is that something that she insists pertains only to the Western powers?
She might be asked what she makes of Egypt, where the entire population consisted of Coptic Christians before the Arabs arrived. How did that country go from being nearly 100% Coptic to becoming 85% Muslim? Does Ilhan Omar have any comment on how the Coptic Christians who remain are treated by the majority Muslims? She might be asked, too, what happened to the Zoroastrians of Persia, who disappeared almost entirely when the Muslim Arabs conquered that land, save for a group that found refuge in India where, ever since, they have been known as the Parsees. She might be asked, too, to comment on the situation of those Berbers today in North Africa, that is, those Berbers who have managed to withstand Arabization in Algeria and Morocco, who have had to fight hard to retain their Berber language, culture, and identity.
There are so many more questions she might be asked, but let’s end our inquiry with two final questions for the Congresswoman.
“Ms. Omar, the Muslim imperialists who conquered India murdered between 70 and 80 million Hindus over several centuries of Muslim rule. Would you care to tell us what you make of that fact? And even today, Muslim terrorists, some based in Pakistan, still target Hindus in India. Think of those who have attacked the Parliament Building in New Delhi or, in 2008, hit 10 different sites in Mumbai. What do you believe they are after? Much of Indian territory was in 1947 given over to the creation of Muslim Pakistan (then West Pakistan) and Muslim Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Yet Muslim terrorists continue to strike within India. Do they now want to conquer the rest of India? Does their Jihad against India’s Infidels have no end?
“And one last thing, Congresswoman. The late scholar of Islam, Anwar Sheikh, who had grown up as a Muslim, famously wrote that ‘Islam is the vehicle for Arab supremacism.’ Would you care to discuss what he meant by that lapidary formulation?”
Raising these matters might just make Ms. Omar more hesitate to inveigh against “Western Imperialism” and possibly cause her to tiptoe very carefully around the subject of “imperialism” altogether, now that she realizes that others are ready and willing to discuss the Arab and Muslim varieties, that have been much more extensive, and have claimed many more victims, than anything done by “Western imperialists.” Should she choose, uncharacteristically, to shut up entirely about “imperialism,” that is an outcome devoutly to be wished.
No Muzzies Here says
“Western imperialism” means a democracy friendly to Christian teachings. By uniting, Jihadis and Marxists hope to eliminate our democracy which incorporates some Christian principles.
They would like to replace it with a totalitarian theocracy friendly to Islam.
Naildriver says
It is no small irony that Marxists and devotees to Islam become allies given the theocratic demands of Islam, but, this does illustrate how the real war is between man’s worst primitive proclivities, limbic and carnal imulses, and reason itself.
Both the Marxist and devotees of Islam share their ranks with malcontents — with visceral and feral character; and, their leadership of demagogues who feed their minions with childish and vicious lies to sustain power.
The worst most violent character is lobbied by Islam in American prisons –that puts resentment and racism at the top among felons — who in their simple minds, justify felonies with being Muslim in being like Mohammed.
This fanatical self-justification is just what the communists want.
mike says
just like Obama said CHANGE
Michael Copeland says
“The Muslim nation is one nation, to the exclusion of all others” – placard in pro-Sharia march.
https://thinkafricapress.com/sharia-law-libya-protest-shuts-down-oxford-street-london/
That could only be an Empire.
Jay says
Omar has had a lobotomy and no one told her! She is completely devoid of any common sense !
And I think she is in the USA illegally! She should never have been qualified to run for public office,
And her support of communist Bernie Sanders certainly tells you she is not loyal to the people who elected her! Hopefully the investigations into her citizenship fraud will be her demise and soon!! Not to mention her illegal marriages!
God bless and save America from people out to destroy it!??????
Trump,2020
somehistory says
The sick one omar is an empty-headed, ignorant, stupid loudmouth creep full of evil. In other words, omar is moslim.
omar was ‘elected’ to represent the entire country, with special lookout for the state where she resides as an idiot. omar only ‘represents’ moslims…everywhere, not just the States. omar does not understand the history of the country nor the laws of the country. omar is a parrot for the mb and er dog an. omar gets much of her talking points from cair. All moslim, all of the time. All ignorant creep.
elee says
+1
a day in the sun says
+1
somehistory says
Didn’t ‘o,’ the moslim who said he had “visited all of the 57 states,” say much the same thing about American Imperialism?
jewdog says
Yes, but she is protected in her lies and slander by the modern-day double standard which dismisses, ignores or excuses imperialism perpetrated by non-Western peoples. Such obvious bias is primarily the responsibility of Westerners who want to look repentant, fair, cool, with-it, or, most likely, are simply ignorant conformists.
janwog says
Young women with her senile sugar daddy
ElderlyZionist says
I just threw up in my mouth.
FYI says
And what about 1,400 years of… iSLAMIC imperialism?
Invading countries,forcing them to convert to their cult of muhammed,koranically sanctioned Ethnic cleansing,stealing from infidels and making them pay a Jizya Tax{the islamic version of a protection racket scam},mass murdering Jews,Christians,Buddhists,Hindus etc?
1,400 years of it:surely the worst, most insidious form of religious imperialism in World History is iSLAMIC.
I don’t agree with any kind of colonialism: note how the likes of omar and the lefties in their RED-GREEN{Lefty-islamic} Axis choose to ignore iSLAMIC imperialism which is STILL happening today.
somehistory says
Perhaps omar is “thinking”…term used loosely for lack of another word…of the U.S. Virgin Islands or American Somoa. Or maybe Guam. Beautiful islands all.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Would the inhabitants of any of those places want to be independent? They are delighted to be under American protection, and to receive generous American subsidies. There’s no imperialism involved; imperialists do not spend, but make money.
somehistory says
Ah, you misunderstood my comment, evidently. But, you didn’t mention them in your article, so I just said that perhaps those were the places she had in mind….just in case she came back with that retort in some “news” article or interview someplace. Not that she personally has enough knowledge to even recall that those islands are “territories” of the U.S…but someone might point it out.
Whether or not any of the inhabitants of those islands wish to be independent…I have no idea as I have never spoken to any of them. It’s possible that some individuals do, as not every person is in agreement with every other. But, that wasn’t why I posted about them anyway.
Wellington says
Fitzgerald 1. Omar 0.
Infidel says
Question: is Ilhan ethnically an Arab, or an ethnic Black Somalian?
Also, one correction to Hugh: while 70-80 million Hindus and Sikhs died during Mughal rule, another 60-70 million Hindus, Buddhists and Jains died during the preceding 500 years under the Delhi sultanates – starting w/ Mahmoud of Ghazni’s invasions through Tamerlane’s pillage of Delhi to the point where the Mughals invaded. In other words, the grand total would be up to 150 million, not 70
gravenimage says
Infidel wrote:
Question: is Ilhan ethnically an Arab, or an ethnic Black Somalian?
………………..
Good question, Infidel.
Somalis–and all Muslims of the Sahel–consider themselves to be Arabs, no matter how dark-skinned they may be.
But Omar is perfectly happy to consider herself Black–or at least present herself as Black–it if is to her advantage with Leftists in the United States.
Infidel says
If she’s an Arab, she’s an accomplice in Arab imperialism, and has no business speaking out against Western imperialism, whatever that is. Instead, on the woke ladder, she ought to be paying reparations or obeisance to other peoples that the Arabs decimated – Persian Zoroastrians, Assyrians, pre-Islamic Kurds, Egyptian Copts, Carthegians, Nubians, Turkic Buddhists/Shamanists, Pashtun Buddhists, Indian and East Indian Hindus and so on.
By getting in bed w/ the Mohammedans, the Leftists have pretty much driven their woke causes into the ground, since everything that they ostensibly stand for – women’s rights, LGBTQ, animal rights, et al is violated by Muslims far worse than anyone else
Chand says
I thought the total number of Hindus and Sikhs killed by Muslim invaders in India was 80 million. Now it has become 150 million.
Any source material on this?
Infidel says
KS Lal and Will Durant both gave out different numbers – the ones I cited above. One of them wrote about what happened before 1500, and the other wrote about what happened after 1500. Given the absence of other statistical sources (although there’s plenty of sourcing of the actual cases of persecution and murder in the various wars that happened), I simply added up their numbers, since they don’t co-incide
Chand says
I think both of them actually meant around 80 million, in total, from all Muslim invasions in India.
Alexious Comnenus says
Omar is there to get a good salary and great income . Then she is there to represent Islam and nothing else. The stupid morons and intellectual impotents from DC allowed her to take her oath on Quran and not on our Constitution. What a paradox? I totally agreed with the above article.But how many Americans, mostly the young, will read and understand what is going on a larger scale? The percentage is very low. This is what worries me.But I have hope.
Westman says
If it looks like a Muslima and talks like a Communist, it is a Muslim Communist.
It’s interesting how the liberal Left has become muted over Omar after a former rousing support. The more she talks, the more nervous CAIR becomes. Please, trot her out at every occasion (and perhaps a few of her ex husbands) so Americans can all bask in her true character.
Perhaps we could view a video of Omar instructing AOC on how to use a garbage disposal?
gravenimage says
Westman–with all respect–I don’t think CAIR is nervous about this. I think they love having aggressive Muslims in positions of power. Sure, she ticks sane people off, but that has never been the people she appeals to.
Lydia Church says
They fight against the West, its culture, and white civilization.
That’s the plain English translation.
David Grisez says
One big problem with Ilhan Omar is that she is a Muslim and she views this world, and the United States thru an Islamic mindset. In this mindset the United States is involved in Western Imperialism because it is a non muslim nation trying to stop Islamic Terrorism in from coming to the United States from Islamic nations. To Ilhan Omar any United States involvement in a Muslim nation is Western Imperialism.
gravenimage says
Yep. Muslims consider any resistance by the West to Jihad terrorism or the Islamization of our lands to be “Western Imperialism”.
Barb says
Thank you Hugh Fitzgerald for your article! Thank-you for bringing TRUTH to us all!
gravenimage says
Yes–excellent article.
elee says
It is western imperialism that allowed her to leave her native s**thole, come to America, and get handsomely compensated for going about barefaced unescorted and loudmouthed. She can go back and be a good Muslima any time. No gift brings so little gratitude to the giver as the gift of freedom.
gravenimage says
Yep.
Wellington says
Yep.
Mark Swan says
Yep.
Mark Swan says
Conservative radio legend Michael Savage — host of the nationally syndicated show
The Savage Nation and The Savage Nation Podcast :
Says in this interview…
“No, I’m pessimistic,” Savage says bluntly. “I think Donald Trump, even if he wins a second term, it is the last gasp of America as we know it. I think we’re going to enter years and years, if not decades of darkness.”
“I see the mass of illegal immigrants, who are illiterate even in their own language. They have none of our shared values. They will never be Americans and embrace the values that built this country. They’ve been steeped in hatred for this nation by the media and the universities. And they have a very dim view of our nation, even though they love the benefits that have accrued from far better people than them,” he concludes.
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/11/11/exclusive-michael-savage-raw-and-unfiltered-on-trump-beethoven-and-the-future-of-america/
gravenimage says
Not all of us plan on surrendering, Mark.
Mark Swan says
No, gravenimage…
No one should be advocating surrender…
This article I linked to was written by Michael Savage, he seems to have been
doing his share to resist the madness so far…nor does he mention giving-up.
often times it is when things are spelled out so disturbingly that we muster
more strength from such perspective.
I love this Nation and have never imagined that just letting the pushiest have
their way was a solution to anything.
gravenimage says
I stand with you, Mark!
Wellington says
Mark: I surely hope Savage is wrong though I think he may very well be correct. The great experiment which has been America is in mortal jeopardy because of Leftism, Islam, a third world that can never get its damn act together (which is why it remains third world), unchecked immigration, apathy and overall ignorance. If America survives all this rot, then it is even greater than I have esteemed it to be.
Still, there is no recourse but to fight to the end and think of victory and not defeat. What else can a (still) free American do? Better dead than crushed under the twin thumbs of totalitarianism and ignorance.
Mark Swan says
Absolutely Wellington…
This mess did not happen overnight and certainly will not be cleaned-up
overnight, but mess it is. We have so many wonderful humans who simply
go through the day and try to live and let live. Perhaps they will see through
this in time, perhaps hearing talk like Michael Savage’s and many others will
resonate, affecting popular opinion and lend in the effort to reign in this over
flow of migration.
gravenimage says
Agreed, Wellington and Mark.
gravenimage says
Ilhan Omar and “Western Imperialism”
On November 3, at a political rally with Bernie Sanders in Minneapolis, Ilhan Omar exclaimed that she was happy to have endorsed, and to campaign for, a candidate who “will fight against Western imperialism and fight for a just world.”
……………………..
If we want to see what the “just world” would look like, just look at the bloody horror of Shari’ah Somalia, where Omar comes from.
Infidel says
I’m not sure whether religiously speaking, Bernie is Jewish or Atheist, but regardless, in a world where Omar and Tlaib have their way, he’d not be free to practice either: he’d have to genuflect before allah. In other words, Omar/Tlaib are to him what Sadiq Khan is to Corbin
gravenimage says
True, And as deeply harmful as Bernie’s views are, they are positively salubrious compared to that of Omar and Tlaib and the horrors of Shari’ah law.
Mike says
Bernie seems to want to be a martyr . If he doesn’t stop shouting soon , he will have his last stroke and blame it on Patriots .
Seeking Deliverance says
Ilhan Omar is a terrorist plain as day. When is the U.S. going to stop catering to Islam? Mosques have been built all across the United States and Muslim populations (since Bill Clinton) have been allowed to move around freely within the United States let alone settle down within it.
Glyn david says
Well over 340 mosques in Australia…and many more back alley types to…they are nasty in an instant when asked about their book and its author and they do not seem to understand what garbage bins are used for or just dont care…my friend has been offered 45k more for his house from his mohamade’an neighbors who despise him
gravenimage says
According to Wikipedia, there are over 2,000 Mosques in the US. Very disturbing.
Chand says
C’mon. Everybody knows what ‘Western Imperialism’ means.
This Empire is not about nation-states with their armies, navies and flags.
It is the global empire(s) of the multi-national corporations, part of the military-industrial complex. Loaded words, but they do mean something. Leftist philosophy, no doubt.
gravenimage says
Western businesses do not rule the world, nor are they militaries, as Chand and other Leftists like to pretend.
Chand says
Coca Cola, IBM, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google rule.
The stealth bombers, ICBMs, nuke subs, Tomahawks, satellites, predator drones rule, .
At least on planet Earth.
This is not a value judgement. Just facts.
gravenimage says
No, none of these companies rule the world, nor do any of them wield these weapons against anyone.
They are influential companies, yes, but no one need patronize them–and certainly, no one is forced to.
People patronize these companies–or any companies–because they decide the products they offer are of value.
Angemon says
OK, ok – because people willingly buy Coca cola., Apple products, etc, therefore “Western imperialism”? Plenty of other nations have stealth bombers, nuke subs, satellites, drones, etc – therefore “Western imperialism”?
peter says
Bernie Sanders is a rank idiot and a hypocrite . He is a disgrace to all Americans and Jews . That is why I always address him as Mr. BS
OLD GUY says
Omar and BS are just “IDIOTS” who have access to the media tour which they spread their insane ideas. They should both move out of the USA to where ever their form of government is making life so much better than here.