Hundreds Gather To Protest Ilhan Omar, CAIR Fundraiser
Protesters greeted Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Saturday as she appeared at a fundraising event for the Council of Islamic-American Relations of Greater Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Daily News estimated that there were several hundred protesters present.
They shouted slogans such as “Burn the Quran” and “Shame on you terrorists!” according to the Daily News’ Ariella Plachta.
Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were at the scene, though the LAPD did not reveal how many.
Banners placed by activist Laura Loomer were unfurled from balconies of a building near the Woodland Hills venue where Omar spoke, reading “Ilhan Hates Israel” and “CAIR Hates Jews.”
Omar, a Muslim, has been a lightning rod for protests ever since she made comments that spurred charges of anti-Semitism.
Los Angelenos rally against the hatred, racism, bigotry and #AntiSemitism promoted by @IlhanMN and #CAIR in Woodland Hills where the Council of American Islamic Relationship (CAIR) is fundraising for the legal American Muslim Brotherhood organization pic.twitter.com/p9qYZ37XS0
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) March 24, 2019
MUST WATCH: #LauraLoomer strikes again with banner drops that say “Ilhan hates Israel” and “CAIR hates Jews”.
At this Hilton in Woodland Hills, CA, @IlhanMN is the keynote speaker for the CAIR banquet.
There are 1,500 protesters across the street holding Israeli flags. ✡️???? pic.twitter.com/UIkzQECOmx
— theJewish Voice (@JewishVoice) March 24, 2019
During her speech at the CAIR event, Omar linked President Donald Trump’s way of speaking to the recent attacks on two New Zealand mosques.
“We all kind of knew that this was happening,” she said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“But the reason I think that many of us knew that this was going to get worse is that we finally had a leader in the White House who publicly says Islam hates us, who fuels hate against Muslims, who thinks it is OK to speak about a faith and a whole community in a way that is dehumanizing, vilifying,” she said.
Trump “doesn’t understand, or at least makes us want to think that he doesn’t understand, the consequence that his words might have,” Omar said, adding that she knows better.
“Some people like me know that he understands the consequences. He knows that there are people that he can influence to threaten our lives, to diminish our presence,” she said.
Omar also mocked those who protested against her.
“There are thoroughly fascinating people outside who for so many years have spoken about an Islam that is oppressive, an Islam that lessens and isolates its women, and today they gather outside to protest a Muslim woman who is in Congress,” she said.
“The irony in that is very entertaining to me.”
Omar added a brief denigration of those who marched as she spoke.
“I don’t think many of them realize that people like myself, and many of the people in this room, could care less about what they have to say, because we know who we are, and where we belong, and what we stand for,” she said.
Her bottom line to fellow Muslims was to be confrontational.
“I say raise hell, make people uncomfortable,” she said, the Daily News reported.
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