Progressive Jewish groups call attacks on Omar 'dangerous and unconscionable'

Source: The Hill


BY ZACK BUDRYK - 04/15/19 12:25 PM EDT

The progressive groups J Street and Bend The Arc: Jewish Action defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as President Trump escalates his attacks on the freshman Muslim lawmaker, with the latter calling Trump’s remarks “dangerous and unconscionable.”

“These attacks have gone far beyond strong policy disagreements or anything resembling responsible public discourse. Such reckless expressions of prejudice and hatred can and do incite violence and put our Muslim neighbors, friends and family in danger,” Ginna Green, Bend the Arc's chief strategy officer, said in a statement. “This creates a dangerous climate not only for Muslims, but for every target of white nationalism. It is beyond shameful that the President of the United States would not only fail condemn this hate speech, but would lead the charge.”

The group has defended Omar, who last year became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, on previous occasions when she has come under fire. Green commended Omar’s apology for remarks about the Israel lobby that critics have called anti-Semitic, calling the apology “what a real leader does,” and contrasted it with remarks by Trump in which he defended some attendees of a 2017 white nationalist rally as “very fine people.”

Last week, conservatives resurfaced a speech Omar made to the Council on American Islamic Relations in March, in which she said some people held all Muslims responsible after the 9/11 attacks because “some people did something.”


Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/438928-progressive-jewish-group-calls-attacks-on-omar-dangerous-and-unconscionable