During his visit to the United States (US), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met with US lawmakers, including Ilhan Omar, known for her strong anti-India stance. This meeting has raised eyebrows even among Congress supporters, who argue that Gandhi, as the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, should have distanced himself from a US politician who has repeatedly tried to harm India’s interests on critical issues like Kashmir.
In 2022, Ilhan Omar visited Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), a region unlawfully controlled by Pakistan. The trip, funded by Islamabad, saw her support Pakistani military narratives, trying to internationalize the Kashmir issue. India strongly condemned the visit, criticizing her for undermining India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty for political purposes. Despite diplomatic warnings, Ilhan Omar met with Sultan Mahmood Chaudhary, the so-called president of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and criticized India’s 2019 abrogation of Article 370, expressing “deep concern.” Her remarks echoed Pakistan’s anti-India stance.
In the same year, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib led a House resolution accusing India of violating religious freedoms and urging the US to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern.” This resolution, based on skewed narratives, contributed to rising anti-Hindu bigotry and negatively impacted Hindu Americans. During the protests against India’s farm laws, which were seen as influenced by vested interests, Ilhan Omar voiced support even as the movement turned violent and became linked to the Khalistan network. In 2023, after the internet was shut down to control Khalistani unrest in Punjab, Omar fueled tensions by expressing “profound concern” about human rights in the region, further promoting the separatist agenda.
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In October 2019, the United States House of Representatives held a hearing on the situation in Kashmir. During this hearing, Omar attacked Indian journalist Aarti Tikoo, who had testified before the US Congress on the Kashmiri Hindu genocide in the valley in the 1990s, in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on South Asia Human Rights. Ilhan Omar questioned Tikoo’s coverage of Kashmir. Omar suggested that Tikoo was catering to an audience back home and making “incredibly dubious” claims, essentially accusing Tikoo of presenting a government-sanctioned viewpoint (often referred to as a “Sarkari viewpoint”).
Tikoo, in turn, defended her reporting and professionalism. The exchange highlighted how US lawmakers were under the influence of the Pakistan lobby in Washington and were not ready to hear the side of the various minorities of the Jammu and Kashmir region with its linguistic and ethnic diversity. This year, Ilhan Omar amplified Canadian accusations linking India to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a gang conflict, calling the allegations “deeply concerning” and demanding a US investigation. Although Canada has yet to provide evidence, Omar’s remarks escalated tensions.
Omar is often accused by Arabs on X (formerly Twitter) of being a pawn of the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar’s rulers. She also has been linked to radical Islamic organizations such as Islamic Relief and Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), the sister organization of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a Western branch of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a terror group that is banned in India. HHRD also has ties with Islamic terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan. Counter-terror experts have verified that Ilhan Omar is involved with anti-India forces who want to foment unrest in the country. She also has ties with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the banned Jamaat-e-Islami which frequently collaborates with Equality Labs, the Omidyar Network and Hindus for Human Rights (H4HR) to spread the “Muslim genocide in India” narrative.
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In 2019, Omar had courted controversy when she had defended the 9/11 terrorists by referring to them as “some people doing something”. She is also a proponent of the ‘one-nation’ solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which effectively means refusing to let Israel exist as a country. She is a known antisemite and has expressed steadfast support for the terrorist group Hamas. When the Israel-Palestine crisis broke out in 2021, Ilhan Omar sided with Jihadists to whitewash their crimes against Israel. A representative of Minnesota, Omar, has several times in the past parroted the same lies peddled by the radical Islamists, and Pakistan.
Ilhan Omar was elected to the House of Representatives from Minnesota on a Democrat ticket. Outside the global Muslim brotherhood or the Ummah, Omar is seen as someone running errands for the powerful Islamist lobbies, whose only aim is to push radical Islam in modern societies. The origins of Omar, who hails from Somalia, have also been controversial. Omar arrived in the US at the age of 12 in 1995 as a refugee fleeing Somalia’s civil war. She became a citizen five years later, at the age of 17. In November 2016, she won the election to become the first Somali-American in the US Congress. There are allegations that Omar married her biological brother to bypass the US immigration process. Former President Donald Trump had asked the Justice Department to investigate Ilhan Omar’s marriage to her brother and her subsequent migration to the US illegally.
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For years now, Omar has indulged in propagating anti-India narratives, especially targeting the Narendra Modi government, and has sought the Biden Administration’s official help to further her propaganda war. Omar has also peddled lies about the alleged attacks on minorities, issues of human rights, and freedom of speech in India, claiming that Muslims in the country are facing atrocities at the hands of Hindus. So, an Indian politician, that too, the Leader of the Opposition should not have met with a known Islamist idealogue and collaborator with anti-India networks. A lot of Indian Army soldiers have lost their lives defending the Western border at the LoC and stopping infiltration of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists who wreak havoc in the Jammu and Kashmir region. Internally also, Indian security personnel keep getting targeted by terrorists which have many Muslim soldiers, paratroopers, and even the predominantly Muslim Jammu and Kashmir Police cadres, who have won gallantry awards for their counter-terror operations.
But the most disservice Rahul did was to the Indian Muslims in Kashmir and across Indian cities who have risked their lives to raise the tricolour in the Valley. They are, proudly, the first line of defence against radical, political Islam at great risk to their lives and minds – the same radical, political Islam Ilhan Omar supports from US soil.
The columnist is a Fellow of the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR)