WATCH: Ilhan Omar Outraged at Female Genital Mutilation Question Asked by 'Muslim Progressive'

Nick Kangadis | July 23, 2019
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) would probably be excellent at the game of dodgeball, because she has no problem dodging easy questions. Her expertise in deflecting from the actual topic at hand is pretty apparent to anyone that watches her feign outrage at the mere act of asking certain questions.

On Tuesday, Omar spoke as part of a panel during the Muslim Caucus Collective for Equitable Democracy event at the National Housing Center in Washington D.C.

After the panel discussion ended, some sparks flew as Omar became visibly upset over being asked a question about the predominantly Muslim practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Ani Zonneveld, the President and Founder of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), asked Omar if she or fellow Muslim congresswoman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), would be willing to make a statement against the brutal practice of FGM. Zonneveld was asking the question because she thought that it would make powerful statement for two prominent Muslim women to speak out against the practice, especially in light of a late-2018 case in Detroit where a judge ruled that a ban on FGM was "unconstitutional." 

Omar, apparently, wasn't pleased with the question.

"Your second question is an appalling question," Omar began her response before becoming agitated, "because I always feel like there are bills that we vote on, bills we sponsor, many statements we put out, and then we're in a panel like this and the question is posed, 'Could you and Rashida do this?'"

Omar then briefly, and vaguely, spoke about legislation that she dealt with as part of the Foreign Affairs Committee before returning to her outraged response to a question that was asked of Omar because Zonneveld seemingly felt that Omar was a Muslim woman of power.

Omar continued:

I am, I think, quite disgusted, really 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? There is an assumption. So I want to make sure that the next time someone is in an audience and is looking at me and Rashida and Abdul [El-Sayed] and Sam [Rasoul], that they ask us the proper questions that they will probably ask any member of Congress or any legislator or any politician.

A simple no probably would've sufficed.

Watch Omar's response to Zonneveld's question below:

 

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