I am saddened and sickened by the recent hate crime directed toward Ilhan Omar.
This November Omar was elected to the Minnesota state legislature, and became the first-ever Somali-American lawmaker elected in the United States. But on a recent trip to Washington, DC, she was verbally attacked by a cab driver, who called her “ISIS” and threatened to remove her hijab.
The attack Omar experienced was despicable–but far from an isolated incident. Donald Trump has fueled the explosive growth of Islamaphobia, racism, and misogyny in this country; the Southern Poverty Law Center documented a staggering 867 “hate incidents” in just the first ten days after Election Day, November 8.
NOW calls on the Department of Justice to fully investigate hate crimes like the the one experienced by Ilhan Omar–and to ensure that criminals are held accountable.