Ilhan Omar’s bill requiring the State Department to combat “Islamophobia” has passed. Omar would like us to believe that “Islamophobia” is as much a threat around the world as antisemitism, and she wants the federal government to monitor, to report on, and to fight the spread of this “hatred.” A report on the bill she has co-sponsored can be found here: “House committee debates antisemitism as Islamophobia monitor bill moves forward,” by Ron Kampeas, Jerusalem Post, December 11, 2021:
A bill that would create an Islamophobia monitor in much the same cast as the State Department’s antisemitism monitor cleared its first hurdle on Friday, after a House committee debate about antisemitism.
The bill, whose lead sponsors were Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of three Muslims in Congress, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who is Jewish, was approved Friday by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, with the majority of Democrats voting for it. It now goes to the House floor.
Ilhan Omar has persuaded – some might say inveigled — a Jewish Congresswoman to join her in co-sponsoring the bill. This is her standard technique for avoiding charges of antisemitism, to “reach out” to liberal Jews who are insufficiently wary of her wiles and guiles, to join her in whatever mischief she is up to. Her latest effort is to make Congress believe that “Islamophobia” — so often invoked, so rarely defined — really is such a major problem worldwide that it needs a special office in the federal government to monitor it.
Etymologically, “Islamophobia” means the “irrational fear or hatred of Islam.” But “Islamophobia” is a word that was invented not to describe that “irrational fear or hatred of Islam and of Muslims,” but in order to shut down any criticism of Islam, no matter how justified. The word is now affixed to anyone who dares to suggest that the large-scale presence of Muslims in non-Muslim lands, given the refusal of many Muslims to integrate into the larger society, and instead remain hostilely aloof from it, is worrisome. The word is affixed as well to anyone who dares to suggest that the Qur’an is full of violent passages, such as 2:191-193, 3:151, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, where Muslims are instructed to “fight” and to “kill” and to “smite at the necks of” and to “strike terror in the hearts of” Infidels. It is affixed to those who remind us that the Qur’an describes Muslims as “the best of peoples” (3:110) and non-Muslims as “the most vile of created beings” (98:6). It is affixed to those who point out that Muhammad married his favorite, and last, wife when she was six, and consummated the marriage when she was nine, and as a consequence many Muslims have similarly taken very young brides. It is affixed to those who mention that Muhammad, considered by Muslims to be the “Perfect Man” and “Model of Conduct,” asked aloud for someone to rid him of three people who had mocked him – Asma bint Marwan, Ka’b bin al-Ashraf, and Abu Afak — and his followers dutifully murdered, seriatim, all three.
During an extended committee debate on Thursday, Republicans argued that there was no need to track Islamophobia, and that the monitor position would be used as an instrument to oppress conservatives. They also said that it would undercut the fight against antisemitism — and even encourage antisemites.
There is no need to track “Islamophobia,” given the only legitimate meaning of that word – an “irrational hatred or fear of Islam” — because in the world today, we find many reasons to consider such a fear perfectly rational. Since 9/11, there have been over 40,000 separate terror attacks committed by Muslims all over the globe, against Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’is, Yazidis, and even Muslims who are of a different sect, or of the right sect, but deemed insufficiently devout. It is not irrational to fear a faith whose “Perfect Man” boasted in one hadith that “I have been made victorious through terror,” and in another that “War is deceit.” This “Model of Conduct” (uswa hasana) also took part in the slaughter of 600-900 bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe in Mecca. He took part in the slaughter, too, of the inoffensive Jewish farmers of the Khaybar oasis, claiming as part of his plunder the Jewish girl Saafiya, after her father, brother, and husband had been murdered by Muhammad’s fighters. When Muslims of the Islamic State murdered the Yazidi men, and took their women and girls as sex slaves, they were following the example of the “Perfect Man.” Is it “irrational” to fear a faith that presents Muhammad as a model – the “Perfect Man” — to emulate? Are we “irrational” when we fear a faith that animates such violent groups as the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shebab, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, and dozens more? Is it irrational to be alarmed by the “No-Go” neighborhoods in Europe, where Muslims make life difficult and dangerous for non-Muslims, including even firemen and policemen? These fears are not irrational but sensible. Yet anyone who expresses misgivings about the effect of a growing Muslim presence in Europe is immediately described as “Islamophobic” and both “extreme far-right” and “racist” (though Islam is not a race) for good measure.
Democrats pushed back, saying that the US government was capable of simultaneously tracking and exposing both bigotries. Notably, Jewish Democrats on the committee were among the first to speak in the bill’s defense, a showing that underscored their argument that an Islamophobia monitor would complement and not undercut the antisemitism monitor.
These Jewish Democrats persist in believing, or claiming to believe, that “Islamophobia” is something more than a means to shut down all criticism, no matter how justified, of Islam. They are willing to do this, it seems, in order to virtue-signal something along the idiotic lines of “we who know full well the evils of antisemitism must stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters in their times of peril.” Nauseating.
There is no comparison to be made between the oldest hatred, antisemitism, that Jews have endured in the Christian world for two thousand years, and for 1400 years in the Islamic one. Antisemitism was responsible, within living memory, for the murders of six million Jews, and “Islamophobia,” a word that has appeared only within the last few decades, in order to silence all criticism of Islam and of Muslims, no matter how sober and thoughtful and fact-based that criticism may be.
In the Western world, wherever large numbers of Muslim migrants have settled in recent decades, the result of that sudden influx has been to create a situation that for the indigenous non-Muslims, and for other, non-Muslim, immigrants, is more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than would be the case without that large-scale Muslim presence.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., who is Jewish, noted the pivotal role a letter from George Washington to a community of Jews in Rhode Island played in making the United States a safe haven for Jews.
“And so, religious freedom was born in my home state in Touro Synagogue in those words from the first president of the United States,” Cicilline said. “And so we should be very proud of that tradition, and making sure that no one suffers discrimination, because of their religious tradition, is central to that. This is not about ‘pick one,’ we should of course condemn and have condemned and will continue to condemn antisemitism and the rise of it.”
The word “Islamophobic” – let’s keep repeating — is not used mainly to describe those who “discriminate against Muslims,” for there are so few cases of those, but, rather, employed to malign those non-Muslims who actually study Islam. When these report their findings on the texts and teachings of Islam, they are called “Islamophobes.” When they adduce the historical evidence, from 1400 years of Muslim conquests of many lands and many peoples, of the mistreatment suffered by those many peoples, they are called “Islamophobes.” When they report that upon being conquered, non-Muslims were offered by the victorious Muslims only three choices: death, or immediate conversion to Islam, or acceptance of the permanent status of the dhimmi, subject to many political, economic, and social disabilities, including the payment of the onerous jizyah, a tax imposed on non-Muslims to buy “protection” from the Muslims themselves, they are again called….”Islamophobes.”
The bill’s defenders cited ongoing persecution of Muslims in China, Myanmar, India and elsewhere as an impetus. The monitor position, like the one that tracks antisemitism. worldwide, would have no enforcement mechanism. It would be designated only to monitor bigotry overseas, not domestically.
Of all the examples of “Islamophobia” that are adduced by Ilhan Omar and her fellows, the only one that really qualifies is the Chinese policy of herding Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang into re-education camps, confiscating Qur’ans that are not the officially approved versions distributed by the Chinese government, closing many mosques, outlawing “religious” beards and Muslim first names..
Whether it is the atrocities being committed against the Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Burma, the crackdowns on Muslim populations in India and Sri Lanka, the scapegoating of Muslim refugees and other Muslims in Hungary and Poland, the acts of white supremacist violence targeting Muslims in New Zealand and Canada, or the targeting of minority Muslim communities in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Bahrain, and Iran — the problem of Islamophobia is global in scope,” Omar said Friday in praising the advance of the bill.
Other Jewish Democrats speaking in defense of the bill included Ted Deutch of Florida, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, and Andy Levin of Michigan.
But Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, argued that a monitor for Islamophobia would undercut the work of the antisemitism monitor.
To suggest that Islamophobia is on par with antisemitism is to dramatically understate and even trivialize the historic and pervasive nature that makes antisemitism such a difficult problem to overcome,” said Chabot. “We should avoid such a dangerous false equivalency at all cost as it could be used by some extremists to actually justify further antisemitic activity.”
Cicilline said “no one is suggesting equivalence.”
But that’s exactly what Ilhan Omar is suggesting. She wants a bill to monitor “Islamophobia” that will track the language setting up the government’s “antisemitism” monitor. She wants to convince us that “Islamophobia” is equally virulent, irrational, and dangerous as antisemitism.
Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, a Jewish Republican, focused less on the bill’s content and more on its author, Omar, who has faced criticism from fellow Democrats as well as Republicans for remarks seen as antisemitic.
My colleague who introduces today’s resolution has made a number of statements deeply offensive, has taken a number of foreign policy positions that many on this committee and in Congress and in our country have issue with,” Zeldin said. “And when the statements were specifically targeting people who are Jewish, our nation’s great ally in Israel.”
He also said the bill too broadly defined Islamophobia. The bill’s authors, Omar and Schakowsky, used the 2003 law that established an antisemitism monitor as a template.
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Florida, said he feared the Biden administration would use the bill to attack Americans.
“That’s the whole point of this,” Mast said. “Let’s create an office of attack for people speaking about their concerns.”
The critics of Ilhan Omar note that she has made many remarks deemed antisemitic, including her claim that Jews “buy” pro-Israel votes in Congress – “It’s all about the benjamins, baby.” She has supported BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction), that attempts to delegitimize and thereby weaken the Jewish state. She has denounced Israel as an “apartheid” regime. She has accused Israel of deliberately killing civilians in Gaza.
None of that matters. The bill setting up an “Islamophobia” monitor will pass – no Democrats want to be perceived as soft on “haters.” The Republicans are talking sense, but the Democrats have the votes. One more defeat for common sense. One more victory for the nonsense and lies to protect Islam that the Western world seems determined to believe.
Jim says
What we need is more laws to protect Christians and Jews, Hindus and Buddhists against Muslim dimmiphobia. That is the greatest threat. Are there Christian jihadis or Jewish jihadis making attacks on Muslims in America? That really does not seem to be the case. Perhaps some immigration reform to keep people like Ilhan Omar from flooding into America.
revereridesagain says
That horse has left the barn, but it’s never too late to start properly securing the door. Slave of Allah Omar should never have been admitted to this nation, let alone put in position to be elected to public office by her fellow Islamic supremacists and their leftist enablers.
Rufolino says
“Islamophobia ” is a scam and he House has bought it.
Steve T says
If Omar didn’t have the devil’s work, she’d have no work at all.
Walter Sieruk says
Ilan Omar can now be very happy since she got her balderdash bill passed .
The passing of that bill actually gives credence and further supports the claim that that the Islamic lobby organizations as CAIR and the ISNA do have much influence in American politics .
Omar and her other stealth jihadist friends can feel glad about the bill being passed. Of course Omar and other like her will just keep on further pushing for more fulfillment of other goals in their Islamic agenda.
Bob C says
“So now that my racist bill has passed, I can now say anything about anybody I want and can’t be called on it, because you know, “Islamophobia”.
Terry Gain says
The bill passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, not the House itself. I assume that the estimable Hugh Fitzgerald is not responsible for the erroneous caption.
Infidel says
No, the party-line vote was 219 to 212. That’s the whole house, not the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Not sure when Hugh wrote this, but he is right!
The big reason to vote down every Dem running for re-election!
Kagman says
It’s clear this congressional cancer will be washed out with the 2022 election tide – although I suspect Omar will be retained by her mozzie terrorist constituents. The problem.. and it’s a HUGE problem… is undoing the damage these reprobates do… That’s the trick!. I give you ObumblerCare as an example… Once a cancer has invaded the body politic, it’s incredibly difficult to excise.
It’s death to our nation by a thousand cuts.
PRCS says
“Etymologically, “Islamophobia” means the “irrational fear or hatred of Islam.”
Islam, a totalitarian theocracy, is an ideology. Words on paper. Ugly ideas concocted by ignorant, superstitious men which, lif not acted out, are harmless.
The word Islamophobia, so poorly concocted, is an irrational fear of the inanimate.
Nigerian Christians, among so very many others, have a rational fear of Muslims.
Wellington says
I don’t fear Islam, I hate it. Thus a word like Islamonausea, which I saw used here at JW years ago, comes far closer to the truth of things respecting how a word can be used with accuracy. By contrast, the term Islamophobia is deceptive, stupid, intended to crush free speech and actually evidence of a kind of projection.
somehistory says
+1000000 totally true
phil a panici says
thank allah that pres omar got this done
we need more like her!!
(did that shit possibly sound real?)
she must go NOW
GMMiller says
Pass all the bills they want, it won’t change the fact that all Islamics want to destroy America and I will always Despise them.
somehistory says
https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/cair-escalates-its-hate-rhetoric/
These mozlums who claim to be victims of bigotry and hatred are liars, liars, liars because they pretend and hoax and continually spew hatred and bigotry of others, to the point of threats.
a wad threatened Israel with his remarks. i.elmi, fraudulently, lyingly called i omar, has expressed her hate for Israel and has mocked Christians and misapplied Bible verses in her slanderous remarks.
i. elmi has met with the turkey, er snake wan, and advocated for no punishment for terrorists in the U.S.
Snakes; all who are as i. elmi and tlaib and their supporters.
It’s all a part of a plan to stop the Truth about islam, its filthy book, and the intentions of mozlums to take over and make all countries subject to their foul creed, from being proclaimed to more and greater audiences as a warning.
Divine Judgment will catch up with those who choose satan as their ‘god and father.’
PRCS says
What isn’t being addressed in the bill is Omar’s “hijab” or, generally, anywhere else:
Qur’an 33:59 per quran.com
O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments.1 That is more suitable that they will be known 2 and not be abused.
— Saheeh International
Footnotes
1. The jilbāb, which is defined as a cloak covering the head and reaching to the ground, thereby covering the woman’s entire body.
2. As chaste believing women.
The “veil” (hijab, chador, niqab,l burqa, etc.) is a nonverbal expression of Islamic supremacy over ALL “unbelieving” riff-raff (your mom, wife, sister, daughter-in-law, Catholic nuns,…..).
Members of Congress, and so-called journalists as a minimum need to challenge Omar to defend that.
gravenimage says
Yes–the Hijab tells Muslim men who are fair game to rape.
Infidel says
I hope that the next Congress overturns this. In fact, being anti-islamic should be a pre-requisite for candidates who want out votes
Charlie in NY says
The bill covers “the targeting of minority Muslim communities in Muslim-majority countries”. So now an Iranian Shia can be an islamophobe when “targeting” an Iranian Sunni? Isn’t the net cast a bit wide?
Infidel says
Yeah, why not? Since sunnis don’t consider shi’a as islamic!
RRob says
Maybe this “bill” that Ilhan Nur Said Elmi is trying to push through is nothing more than a way of protecting her from prosecution and deportation, which will probably come after the Repubs take back the house and senate. After all, Ilhan Nur Said Elmi is in violation of many laws, including illegaling entering into the USA under a false name, marrying her brother, paying for votes during the 2020 election, violation campaign finance laws, lying on state and federal government employee disclosure documents, etc, etc etc. IF anyone tries to arrest, try, convict and deport/jail, it will just claim islamaphobia and all will be erased. Waiting for it in 3, 2, 1
Kenneth J Johnson says
How do you track Islamphobia? Fear of Isam is a very valid fear. Islamphpbia, an irrational fear of Islam, does not exist, how can it be tracked??. KEN
gravenimage says
Good point, Ken.
ronyvo says
“The bill passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, not the House itself.” If this is true, then we are still fine and work on defeating ANY bill this satanic ignorant Muslim racist woman tries to shove on us. When she came with the idea of defunding the police, I thought that this would be the end of her. But look how crazy this utter stupid idea is spreading!!!!
As I keep saying the problem is not with the Muslims any longer it is with us the Americans, that we allow our #1 enemy America haters in our country and not ONLY that but to become members of our honorable body the Congress.
WAIT, that is not the end of this craziness She will come with more.
john smith says
This is just another step to try to stop any criticism of islam, and not just criticism do they want to put an end to, they also want to stop any truth telling about islam.
It’s their religion to subjugate, enslave, rape, and murder all us non-muslims, as it is all sanctioned in the koran. But if we dare to speak out about this, then we must be silenced, because we are evil islamophobes.
Yes, muslims intend to blindly lead us like sheep to their slaughter.
gravenimage says
Yes, John–that is *exactly* the intent of this bill.
Walter Sieruk says
What nonsense ! There isn’t any real ,genuine, Islamophobia because the Muslims propagandists as well as the many other apologists for Islam have made much progress in making the religion of Islam look good in the eyes of the uninformed and gullible American public.
In contrast that is now much “Jewish -phobia in America because of Ilan Omar and other people like her.
Related to this are the words of the former US President, William Howard Taft , ,wisely, declared in a speech that “Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out it has no place in America”
Fitna says
Muslims did the same in Canada. Fake victimhood claims by Muslim politicians was used to introduce anti-free speech legislation. They came very close to criminalizing opposition to Islam.
Without uninformed moronic, cowardly traitorous Leftists, such advances by the death cult of Islam could never be possible. Those who are informed need to stand up and aggressively push back.
If you lose your freedom of speech then the only resort left to oppose fascist totalitarian regimes and ideologies, is violence. This was the lesson of books like 1984 and movies like V for Vendetta.
Frankly if we were a properly functioning democracy we would’ve already banned Islam and deported Muslims and possibly declared a global war on Islam. There’s just nothing more evil on this planet than Islam and it needs to be eliminated.
Say what you will about China, but their reeducation camps are better than not dealing with Muslims. The next resort is genocide or expulsion but the world probably would cry fake tears, which is why they didn’t go down that route.
Bella says
We need a Christphobia and Jewphobia bill passed and this ugly nag should be returned to Somalia. Known for a long time that the left has aligned themselves with the muslims. They’re both liars, perverted and evil.
Rocketman says
How about a bill that addresses Americaphobia???
Ren says
WTF? It is not normal to defend a satanic cult.
gravenimage says
Ilhan Omar’s Bill to Combat ‘Islamophobia’ Passes the House
…………..
Suicidal insanity.
Major Tom says
So, now the State Department will be enforcing Shariah Law? What? What?
El Mayor says
More actions by the despicable Ilhan that reinforce my Omarophobia.
Neville says
What of the Islamophobia between that of Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims ?
E T says
Understanding the Threat
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates I’d less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. but the traitor moves amongst within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard within the very halls of government itself. for the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. he rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero H106-43 BC)
Miles M Schreiner says
If you think Islam is to be feared now, wait until they finally get the upper hand militarily or by population somewhere. They have been “relatively” dormant since the 17th century when the Ottomans failed to take Vienna. When they become the big kid on the block somewhere in the West, which is inevitable thanks to the EU and US policies on immigration, the oppression of we Infidels will truly begin. Then the terrorist attacks will seem like child’s play.
Dum Spiro says
I heard about this story here:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/democrats-unanimously-pass-ilhan-omars-anti-islamophobia-act-cut-free-speech/
(But I’m bookmarked this jihad watch page.)
This misguided proposed legislation should be noted by liberty loving Americans…
— Spero
OLD GUY says
Looks like the idiots are ruling the house. But that is NOT true, Omar is not an idiot she is a devout supporter of the Islamic take over of America. That makes HER a TRAITOR, she should be removed from political office she took an oath to uphold the constitution of America and represent the people of this country not a foreign regime. Omar is anti American and must go. Islamophobia is a total lie, and an infringement of my Constitutional RIGHTS of free speech. I don’t like her or what she stands for, and have every right to call her out, or to say that Islam is cruel and evil and not a religion. And Omar you can call me what ever you want, thats FREEDOM of SPEECH.