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Ilhan Omar smiled through a chorus of boos and jeers at a Somali music festival in her home state of Minnesota over Independence Day weekend.
The squad member made an appearance at a concert featuring Somali singer Soldaan Seraar at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Saturday night, but a viral video shows that much of the crowd was not happy to see her.
Some videos show people chanting ‘get out!’ at the congresswoman and telling her to ‘get the f*** out of here.’
Ilhan Omar, 39, looks back and laughs as she struggled to speak over a crowd booing and telling her to ‘get the f*** out of here’ at a concert for a Somalian singer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday
A viral video with more than 1.3 million views shows a crowd jeering at Omar as she came on stage at the Somalian Independence Day celebration
It is not immediately clear what prompted the boos, but a Newsweek article said that some people suggest it was related to the Somali-American congresswoman’s support for abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Another possible reason for the cold shoulder could be her comments Thursday claiming that Minnesota has worse conditions than a Somali refugee camp.
‘It was an honor to welcome you to our incredible city,’ Omar, 39, wrote in a tweet along with a 14-second clip of her walking on stage with husband Tim Mynett. The video she shared ended before the chorus of loud boos broke out.
Longer videos shared on Twitter, however, exhibit that the welcome was not so warm.
A two-and-a-half minute video that has amassed more than 1.3 million views shows one person on stage pleading, ‘Don’t do this,’ as Omar struggled to speak over the crowd.
‘Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, we don’t have all night,’ Omar said at one point.
Omar, one of the two Muslim woman in Congress, was at the concert Saturday to present an award to the singer who was performing for the first time in the U.S.
The two-and-a-half minute video shows one person on stage pleading, ‘Don’t do this,’ as Omar tried to speak, but was drowned out by the angry crowd
Omar smiled through the boos. She was at the concert to present singer Suldaan Seeraar (left in red) with an award as he performed for the first time in the U.S.
The concert also occurred the day after Somali Independence Day, which is on July 1 and celebrates unification of the Trust Territory of Italian Somaliland and the British Somaliland on the same day in 1960, which formed the Somali Republic.
At the age of eight, Omar and her family fled the civil war in her native Somalia and lived for four years in the Dadaab refugee camp, close to the Kenya-Somali border.
At the age of eight, Omar and her family fled the civil war in her native Somalia and lived for four years in the Dadaab refugee camp, close to the Kenya-Somali border.
She was granted asylum in the U.S. and arrived in New York City in 1995 when she was 12. Her family later settled in the Twin Cities two years later.
Speaking at the Gun Violence Community Conversation at North High in Minneapolis on Thursday, Omar said: ‘For six years, I had the privilege of not seeing any violence, until I moved to Minnesota.’
‘My first year in Minnesota I both saw a person shot at Peavey Park, dead on the floor, three weeks after my father and I arrived in Minneapolis,’ she added. ‘Six months later I watched the Minneapolis police put 38 bullets into the body of a mentally disabled Somali immigrant who didn’t speak English.’
Omar described growing up in Somalia and seeing children that she went to school with carrying assault rifles as the civil war began.
The congresswoman went on: ‘I know what that kind of violence looks like but I was fortunate enough to flee that and seek refuge in a refugee camp for four years where I did not witness that kind of violence.’
Omar is one of the most progressive liberal members of Congress – making up part of the original so-called ‘squad’ along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
She appeared at pro-abortion rallies in Washington, D.C. following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last month – she also supports aggressive legislation, including nixing the filibuster, to protect abortion rights.
The Minnesota Democrat is whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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