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[–]asterias[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Omar has described her grandfather, Abukar Omar, as the Director of the National Marine Transport in Somalia in the 1980’s and possibly earlier, serving in the government of then-President Siad Barre. Barre, who took power in 1969, originally governed the country as a Marxist-Leninist before switching his Cold War allegiances to the United States in the late 70’s.

Barre’s government is known as a prolific human rights abuser, persecuting the nation’s Isaaq tribe in a series of government sponsored killings that scholars have referred to as a “forgotten genocide.” Estimates of the civilian casualties of the Isaaq genocide range from 50,000 to 200,000 people.

Omar, who was a child at the time, has also described her family leaving Somalia in 1991, the very year that President Barre was overthrown from power in a revolution that continues to have a destabilizing effect on the East African nation to this day.

Ilhan Omar was also one of the few Democratic members of Congress to decline to formally vote to recognize the Armenian Genocide conducted by the Ottoman Empire after World War I, claiming the United States should be focusing on the legacy of slavery and persecution of Native Americans instead.

[–][deleted] 0 insightful - 1 fun0 insightful - 0 fun1 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ironic since muslims were also big on slavery...