US: Omar attacked by Trump's son for 9/11 comments

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - Congresswoman Ilhan Omar faced further attacks Thursday for comments she made about the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, this time from U.S. President Donald Trump's son.

The younger Trump criticized the Muslim lawmaker after comments surfaced of her talking about the Islamophobia Muslims faced in the post-Sept. 11 era.

"Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen," Omar said at an event for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "And frankly, I’m tired of it. And every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

Trump Jr. called out Omar, taking the wording "some people did something" and using it to call her an "anti-Semite" and a "disgrace".

"What a disgrace that this anti-Semite is in Congress and actually gets to make decisions for Americans," Trump Jr. said in an Instagram post. "As an American and a New Yorker I couldn’t be more offended by this (obscenity)."

On the front page of the New York Post, a right-wing newspaper, was a response to Omar's comments saying "Here's your something. 2,977 people dead from terrorism." Behind the headline was a photo of the Twin Towers exploding.

On Wednesday, "Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade apologized after making similar comments that questioned Omar's loyalty to the U.S.

Some members of Congress came to Omar's defense, saying that she was speaking truth to power.

"They take our words out of context because they’re afraid because we speak truth, we speak truth to power," Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said in an interview with MSNBC about the Post's front cover.

"She sees what terrorism can do, she sees what violence can do to a whole country, a whole people. Taking it out of context, this is just a pure racist act," Tlaib added.

Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota's 5th district, is one of the first two Muslim lawmakers to be elected into U.S. Congress, alongside Tlaib of Michigan.

She has faced a slew of attacks and death threats in recent weeks, along with ongoing criticisms since she made scathing comments against Israel, and now with comments she made on the Sept. 11 attacks.

Last Friday, a man in New York was charged with threatening to assault and kill Omar, after he reportedly said "she's a [expletive] terrorist. I'll put a bullet in her [obscenity] skull."

Last month, a bomb threat was called into a hotel in which she was scheduled to speak, celebrity news site the Blast reported.

A woman called the hotel saying that Omar was a danger to society and threatened to blow up the building if they continued with the event.