Meet Ilhan Omar, Daily Beast style

At the Daily Beast, Dean Obeidallah celebrates the impending election of Ilhan Omar to the Minnesota legislature as he introduces her to a national audience: “Omar, running as a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, is expected to make history as the first Muslim refugee elected to political office.” According to Obeidallah, she’s not running as a Muslim: “Rather, she is running a campaign grounded in a progressive agenda.”

Obeidallah to the contrary notwithstanding, Omar embodies the merger of the Islamist movement with the Democratic Party. As Obeidallah notes, the local Hamas/CAIR chapter is pretty excited by Omar: “Jaylani Hussein, the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Minnesota chapter, called Omar ‘an inspiration to members of our community to not only vote but to become active in politics.’”

I sought to introduce Omar to a national audience in the City Journal column “The curious case of Ilhan Omar.” Like Ellison, Omar seems to have a secret history. Obeidallah intimates none of it in his column. It’s a secret!

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