Newly elected Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the first naturalized African, refugee Muslim woman in Congress warded off accusations by TV-hostess Meghan McCain about her being complicit to the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, on Saturday, April 27, 2019 The Washington Post reported.
The dispute flared up after last Saturday’s shooting in a synagogue in Poway, California, where 19-year-old John Earnest opened fire on a community of worshippers, who at that time were celebrating the last days of Passover. Earnest killed one woman and wounded the three other people including the rabbi. The attack came precisely six months after 11 people were killed at synagogue in Pittsburgh, marking the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S. history, so far.
“When we’re having conversations about anti-Semitism, we should be looking at the most extreme on both sides. I would bring up Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and some of her comments that got so much attention,” McCain, co-host of “The View,” said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She continued, “In my opinion, Nancy Pelosi wasn’t hard enough in response to her trafficking in anti-Semitic language.”
McCain’s statements aroused a lot of backlash on social media. For instance, Sophie Ellman-Golan, Jewish anti-anti-Semitism feminist, said on Twitter: “@McCain: how dare you suggest that @IlhanMN is in some way responsible for the murder of our people when the Poway shooter’s manifesto showed his penchant for violent Islamophobia and antisemitism alike. We know who is killing us. How dare you.”
.@MeghanMcCain how dare you suggest that @IlhanMN is in some way responsible for the murder of our people when the Poway shooter’s manifesto showed his penchant for violent Islamophobia and antisemitism alike. We know who is killing us. How dare you. pic.twitter.com/ou5HykJnbA
— Sophie Ellman-Golan (@EgSophie) April 28, 2019
Omar responded to Ellman-Golan’s Twitter message, by sharing a clip of McCain’s ABC appearance, saying about her, “Oh, bless her heart.”
Oh, bless her heart! https://t.co/ynlQEes8d4
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 29, 2019
President Trump shared his condolences last Saturday, saying the shooting “looked like a hate crime.”
Later, at a rally in Wisconsin, Trump said, “Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community,” and continued, “We forcefully condemn the evils of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also expressed his grief, “No one should have to fear going to their place of worship, and no one should be targeted for practicing the tenets of their faith.”
Omar shared a message on Twitter in condolence to the victims of the Poway shooting, stating that her “heart is breaking.” She continued, “We as a nation must confront the terrifying rise of religious hate and violence,” and, “Love Trumps hate.”
However, not everybody trusted Omar’s sincerity, pointing out that she had made some remarks in the past, that could be deemed anti-Semitic (that inclined toward anti-Semitic). The Republican senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, for instance, criticized Omar and accused her of being ant-Semitic.
“The anti-Semitic Left . . . is getting worse,” Cruz wrote on Twitter Sunday afternoon, tagging Omar and writing that she “repeated anti-Israel slurs.” He added, “Responsible Dems need to say Enough is Enough.”
The anti-Semitic Left—whether @IlhanMN repeated anti-Israel slurs or @nytimes apologizing for Hamas terrorists (eg, on 3/14/18) & running racist cartoons—is getting worse. And the House can’t even pass an anti-Semitism resolution. Responsible Dems need to say Enough is Enough. https://t.co/ca99Mcq9Ij
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 28, 2019
A few hours later, Omar came with a reply on Twitter to Cruz, noting he hadn’t publicly decried last Saturday’s shooting. “Shame on you,” she wrote.
She also wrote: “Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism are two sides of the same bigoted coin,” pointing out that the shooter targeted Jews and Muslims alike. She then referred to a November op-ed she wrote about the rise of hate crimes in the United States. “Let us stand together as Americans in rejecting hate!” it said.