Can Ilhan Omar Overcome Her Prejudice?

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 12, 2019 | Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[CondoleezzaProtege]

- I was born in Somalia and grew up amid pervasive Muslim anti-Semitism. Hate is hard to unlearn without coming to terms with how you learned it. -

I once opened a speech by confessing to a crowd of Jews that I used to hate them. It was 2006 and I was a young native of Somalia who’d been elected to the Dutch Parliament. The American Jewish Committee was giving me its Moral Courage Award. I felt honored and humbled, but a little dishonest if I didn’t own up to my anti-Semitic past. So I told them how I’d learned to blame the Jews for everything.

Fast-forward to 2019. A freshman congresswoman from Minnesota has been infuriating the Jewish community and discomfiting the Democratic leadership with her expressions of anti-Semitism. Like me, Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia and exposed at an early age to Muslim anti-Semitism.

Some of the members of my 2006 AJC audience have asked me to explain and respond to Ms. Omar’s comments, including her equivocal apologies. Their main question is whether it is possible for Ms. Omar to unlearn her evident hatred of Jews—and if so, how to help.

In my experience it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to unlearn hate without coming to terms with how you learned to hate. Most Americans are familiar with the classic Western flavors of anti-Semitism: the Christian, European, white-supremacist and Communist types. But little attention has been paid to the special case of Muslim anti-Semitism. That is a pity because today it is anti-Semitism’s most zealous, most potent and most underestimated form.

[Capt. Tom]

Not unless she rejects Islam.

Unless Omar becomes a heretic like the author, she cannot change her views on the Jews hated by Allah and Muhammad.
That hateful attitude toward the Jews is part of the fundamentals of Islam. - Tom

[BTerclinger]

pic of Omar Alert.

[Vaquero]

Recently Lindsey Graham called them (that group she is part of), communists. It is what they are. It is not prejudice. It is Marxism and it is without cure.

[pookie18]

Thanks, BTerclinger!

[bgill]

No.

[Pagey]

BTTT!

[beelzepug]

” I find it hard to believe that’s real.”

I hope you wake up soon! Time is running out.

[Jewbacca]

Correct. She’d have to want to overcome her hatred of Jews and Nazarenes.

She is a true believer and considers her hatred true.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks to BTerclinger for the above!

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Not likely. I doubt she considers her views prejudice.

[little jeremiah]

Ha. The idea the brother marrying Sharia promting jihad supporting Omar could get over her hatred of Jews (and all the other people/countries she hates) is beyond stupid. She loves to hate. She identifies with her hate.

[little jeremiah]

There was a discussion about this on another thread yesterday, and someone had seen it on Omar’s twitter, but she subsequently deleted it. There are screen shots of it.

[caww]

Omar also deleted the Israel tweets that drew charges of anti-Semitism.

[JerseyDvl]

I guess FR spreads fake news too. I am more awake than most.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BTerclinger, stealin’ it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3764430/posts?page=42#42

[GOPJ]

The WSJ is one of the few papers I’m tempted to subscribe to... it’s rough going to the jump to find ... nothing...

[Valin]

Can Ilhan Omar Overcome Her Prejudice?

No. Next question.