Ilhan Omar’s Opportunity

In July, at the Washington, D.C., conference of the Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy, Representative Ilhan Omar gave a heated answer to a question posed by a member of the audience. The woman had asked if Omar and Representative Rashida Tlaib would be willing to make public statements condemning female genital mutilation. She said that given a recent court decision in Detroit that had found the only federal law against FGM unconstitutional, it could be “really powerful” if the two Muslim congresswomen would do so.

Omar listened quietly, a half-smile playing at her lips, and then she gave her answer. She called the question “appalling”; she said that it was “frustrating”; that she was “quite disgusted, really,” 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.” She suggested that FGM has become a particular litmus test for Muslim elected officials, one that puts assumptions about their