A tweet from Ilhan Omar to her “sister” Rashida Tlaib right after the elections:
Congratulations to my sister @RashidaTlaib on your victory!
I cannot wait to serve with you, inshallah. 🙏🏾
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 7, 2018
Why is Rashida Ilhan’s “sister”? And why was it that Ilhan Omar “cannot wait” to serve with her? Because they are both Muslims. That’s enough to make them “sisters.” That’s more than enough.
Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress, began after her election by treating her audience at her victory speech to a dance performance by fellow Somali-Americans, before giving the universal Islamic greeting with which her victory speech began.
“As-salaam aleikum,” the Democrat said to a crowded room of supporters during her victory party in Minneapolis, using an Islamic phrase that means “Peace be upon you.”
“Wa aleikum salaam,” the crowd immediately replied, which means “and upon you be peace.”
After the exchange, which echoes the way millions of American Muslims greet each other every day, Omar offered her gratitude to God.
“Alhamdulillah,” Omar said three times, a phrase that translates to “all praise to God.”
Hearing that, her supporters erupted in cheers.
Omar’s win in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District means Congress will soon have its first hijab-wearing member, its first refugee and its first Somali-American.
The common Islamic phrases in Omar’s speech were a poignant moment for many American Muslims ― especially after an election cycle filled with Islamophobic attacks against Muslim candidates running for election.
Hearing Omar use the Islamic phrases in the acceptance speech felt affirming, authentic and relatable, Margaret Hill, managing director of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, told HuffPost.
“For any Muslim who draws on their faith for strength, these are natural phrases,” Hill said. “They are everyday phrases. I see a Muslim, I give them that greeting. I often say it when I address a crowd.”
Muslims’ practice of exchanging blessings upon meeting is rooted in Islamic scriptures.
It’s also not at all uncommon for Christian politicians to use religious language to give thanks, with phrases like, “praise God,” and “to God be the glory.”
Hill said that saying “Alhamdulillah” is an act of humility for Muslims.
“We don’t bat an [eye] when Christians reference their faith in victory speeches, in moments of silence, or opening prayers,” Hill said. “If we as Muslims are questioned for using phrases which are part of our daily life, then that speaks a lot to the climate of anti-Muslim bigotry.”
But these phrases deserve to be questioned. “As salaam aleikum” is a phrase uttered by Muslims to other Muslims; it is not ordinarily meant to be addressed to non-Muslims. And the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to Allah,” is an example of Islam’s inshallah-fatalism: praising Allah for whatever Allah wills, for Allah Knows Best.
Hearing Omar open her acceptance speech by wishing blessings to her supporters and thanking God is “no different than hearing other members of Congress or public figures thank God for their successes,” Hoda Hawa, director of policy and advocacy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told HuffPost.
It’s very different. Does Hoda Hawa know many Christian “members of Congress” who send greetings, but only to their fellow Christians, as Ilhan Omar was doing when she greeted only fellow Muslims with her “as-salaam aleikum”? And how many “Christian politicians” nowadays thank not their families, supporters, party, but God (“praise be to God”) for their electoral successes?
Hawa said Omar’s election ensures that diverse American communities are represented in Congress.
There have already been two Muslim members of Congress; now there are three: Andre Carson, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, who ran for the seat being vacated by the first Muslim member of the House, Keith Ellison. But there is one “American community” that is “not represented in Congress” today at all — the Christian refugees from Muslim lands. These refugees, mainly from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Pakistan, have been on the receiving end of Islamic intolerance. Their experience of Islam, and understanding of the Jihad, need to be heard in Congress. Perhaps in 2020 there will be such a candidate.
“Her presence is an inspiration for young American Muslims who seek to become more politically engaged,” [Hoda Hawa] told HuffPost.
Slate reporter Aymann Ismail wrote in a post that he felt “transported” after hearing Omar use the Islamic phrases.
“As the child of Muslim immigrants myself, for years, every vote I cast for a national candidate felt mostly like a vote against whoever I thought was more likely to stoke hatred against Americans like me,” Ismail wrote.
This self-pitying victimization — this claim of anxiety about which candidate was more likely “to stoke hatred against Americans like me” — infuriates, especially because there has been almost no such “stoking of hatred against Americans” like Aymann Ismail, that is, Muslims. The mainstream media largely support Islam and Muslims, labeling sober islamocritics as islamophobes, and helping to keep the contents of the Qur’an and Hadith more or less under wraps, lest knowledge of their contents lead to a widespread revulsion with Islam. That media has gone into overdrive in its celebrating the victories of the “first two Muslim women to have been elected to Congress.”
“In Omar, I see a congresswoman who not only sees the world the way I do, but whose presence alone will remind Congress that I too am American, and so are all American Muslims.”
How does Aymann Ismail know that Ilhan Omar “sees the world the way” he does? Because they are both Muslims, and for him that shared identity effaces all other differences. And notice his allusion to the (non-existent) mistreatment of Muslims who, he claims, have hitherto not been recognized as real Americans, but who now, thanks to Omar’s victory, everyone in Congress will be reminded that we Muslims are Americans, too. But why does Aymann Ismail think anyone in Congress needs to be reminded that Muslims are “American citizens too”? They already have had Keith Ellison and Andre Carson as fellow members of the House, the former having served for more than ten years. Surely that’s enough of a reminder that Muslims “are American citizens too.”