WASHINGTON -- Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Ill.) snapped at a progressive Muslim who asked her at a conference on Tuesday if she could make a public statement condemning female genital mutilation, calling the question "appalling" and "very frustrating."
"Should I make a schedule, like, does this need to be on repeat every 5 minutes? Should I be like, so, today I forgot to condemn Al-Qaeda, so here's the Al-Qaeda one. Today I forgot to condemn FGM so here it goes. Today I forgot to condemn Hamas so here it goes. You know, I mean, it is a very frustrating question that comes up. You can look up my record. I've voted for bills doing exactly what you are asking me to do. I've put out statements upon statements," Omar said at the Muslim Caucus Education Collective's 2019 Conference.
"I am, I think, quite disgusted to be honest that as Muslim legislators we are constantly being asked to waste our time speaking to issues that other people are not asked to speak to because the assumption exists that we somehow support and are for, right? No, there is an assumption. So I want to make sure the next time someone is in an audience and is looking at me and Rashida, and Abdul and Sam, that they ask us the proper questions they will probably ask any member of Congress or any legislator," she added.
Omar urged the person who asked the question, Ani Zonneveld, president of Muslims for Progressive Values, and the rest of the audience, not come forward "with an accusation that we might support something that is so abhorrent, so offensive, so evil, so vile."
She continued, "I would like, not just for you, but for everyone to know that if you want us to speak as politicians, as American politicians, then you treat us as such."
(h/t PJ Media)