Ocasio-Cortez, among others, says this poster is a manifestation of racism. Mike Pushkin, a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said of the poster: “I said, ‘What does she have to do with 9/11?’ It was Islamophobic. I thought it was racist and it was wrong.”
Whatever the poster may be, it isn’t really racist. Islam is not a race. Jihad is not a race. The claim that opposing jihad terror is racism gallops forward nonetheless. No one can think anymore.
Meanwhile, what does Ilhan Omar have to do with 9/11? Nothing, of course. The poster isn’t claiming that she was involved in the plot. But all those who are outraged over this poster assume that the 9/11 hijackers believed in a twisted, hijacked version of Islam, while Ilhan Omar, they doubtless assume, believes in the true, peaceful Islam. All right. But there a good many unproven assumptions there. Islam has doctrines calling for warfare against unbelievers, which the 9/11 plotters themselves invoked in explaining why they hatched the 9/11 plot.
These doctrines of violence are taught by all the mainstream sects of Islam and all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Somalia, from which Ilhan Omar hails, adheres to the Shafi’i madhhab (school of jurisprudence).
A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates about jihad that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)…while remaining in their ancestral religions.” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Of course, there is no caliph today, and hence the oft-repeated claim that contemporary jihad groups are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes “obligatory for everyone” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: ‘Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until “the final descent of Jesus.” After that, “nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent” (o9.8).
Does Ilhan Omar believe anything like that? No establishment media reporter would ever dream of asking her, but considering that she is clearly a devout, Sharia-compliant Muslim, it would be more surprising if she didn’t than if she did. So she actually is a sign that Americans have forgotten 9/11, or more precisely, she is a sign of the fact that most Americans never really learned what 9/11 was all about. We were told from the beginning that Islam was a religion of peace that the 9/11 hijackers had twisted and misused. Now a Congresswoman has been elected who clearly has deeply imbibed Islamic antisemitism and probably holds the same beliefs that the hijackers held. No, she has nothing to do with 9/11. But she is a sign of how the goals of that attacks are getting closer to being realized.
Ocasio-Cortez also decried how Republicans are supposedly using racism to “demonize communities.” This is one of the ways that the national discussion we needed to have after 9/11 was derailed. Powerful political and media figures insisted that to discuss how the 9/11 jihadis and others used the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and make recruits among peaceful Muslims amounted to “demonizing” the entire Muslim community. The honest analysis of the root causes of Islamic jihad have been buried under charges of “racism,” “bigotry,” and “Islamophobia.” The outrage over this poster, which actually makes a valid point, is just another manifestation of this.
“Poster linking Rep. Ilhan Omar to 9/11 sparks outrage, injuries in W.Va. state Capitol,” by Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, March 2, 2019:
Friday was a day meant to celebrate the Republican Party in the West Virginia Capitol. But a poster connecting a Muslim congresswoman to the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to heated emotions, caused the resignation of at least one staff member and left another reportedly injured when things got physical as the altercation spilled into the chamber of the West Virginia House of Delegates.
The poster, at a table in the Capitol’s rotunda, featured an image of freshmen Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) underneath one of the New York’s twin towers burning.
“’Never forget’ — You said,” read text placed over the photo of the World Trade Center.
“I am the proof you have forgotten,” read the caption over Omar’s image.
Omar, one of the first two Muslim congresswoman ever elected, has been the target of Islamophobic smears since she took office this year.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the poster, which was displayed on a day of events called “WVGOP Day” and sponsored by the state Republican Party. Melody Potter, the state party chairwoman, did not respond to voice mail or text messages.
Photos of the poster showed it next to a placard promoting ACT for America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated an anti-Muslim hate group. ACT for America did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mike Pushkin, a Democratic member of the House of Delegates, told The Washington Post that he was in a morning committee meeting when someone sent him a picture of the poster. He later snapped and tweeted a picture of it after walking over to see it.
“I said, ‘What does she have to do with 9/11?’ ” he said. “It was Islamophobic. I thought it was racist and it was wrong.”
The poster kicked off a heated debate in the hallway outside the House of Delegates that eventually spilled into the chamber, Pushkin said.
The body’s sergeant at arms submitted a letter of resignation at the end of the day after being accused of a making an anti-Muslim slur during the dispute, according to West Virginia Public Radio and other local outlets. A doorkeeper was reportedly injured during a dispute with a member over the doors to the chamber.
Pushkin, who is Jewish, said he condemned the poster from the floor of the House and asked his colleagues to do the same.
“I said, ‘In 1933 in Berlin, they might have had a similar poster about somebody like me,’ ” he said.
But no Republican delegates condemned the poster, Pushkin said. “I’m really disappointed that not a single Republican elected official in this building could join me in saying it’s wrong,” he said.
Many Republicans got up to speak about the First Amendment in response, according to West Virginia Public Radio.
“My issue with what I saw outside has to do with another truly American foundational issue, and that’s freedom of speech,” Republican Del. Dianna Graves said, West Virginia Public Radio reported. “So, while I may not agree with everything that is out there, I do agree that freedom of speech is something that we have to protect, even if we don’t agree with it.”
Democrats countered that the poster amounted to hate speech….
Omar, a refugee from Somalia who immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was young, tweeted that she had been receiving threats recently.
“Look no further, the GOP’s anti-Muslim display likening me to a terrorist rocks in state capitols and no one is condemning them!” she wrote.
On Saturday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted that, “When racism becomes acceptable on a partisan basis, and official GOP groups begin to use it to demonize communities, it puts real people in danger.
@IlhanMN, I am sorry these threats are being targeted on you.”…