A far-left member of “The Squad” in Congress is facing a new challenger who threatens to use her obsession with intersectionality against her.
According to the Post Millennial, a black Somali immigrant named Shukri Abdirahman has launched a bid to unseat Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar.
“Ilhan Omar was given a second chance when America took her in — but chose to ridicule the very country that saved her life,” Abdirahman wrote in a tweet announcing her campaign.
“When I was welcomed as a legal American citizen. I responded by joining the U.S. Army. Now I’m taking a stand to give hope to the people of Minneapolis.”
Ilhan Omar was given a second chance when America took her in — but chose to ridicule the very country that saved her life.
When I was welcomed as a legal American citizen. I responded by joining the U.S. Army.
Now I’m taking a stand to give hope to the people of Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/yVqZPN0lWT
— Shukri Abdirahman (@ShuForCongress) February 28, 2022
In a video accompanying the announcement, Abdirahman told the story of her family’s flight from Somalia. She said her father was taken by dictator Mohamed Siad Barre’s men in the middle of the night.
Her father eventually returned, but he had been poisoned for refusing to join Barre and died as a result.
“In fear of our lives, my family fled war-torn Somalia to the slums of Kenya, where we spent nearly four years in a refugee camp waiting with hopes to come to America,” Abdirahman said.
“From Somalia to Minnesota, my family and I were welcomed as legal American citizens. America had saved my life.”
Abdirahman said she was inspired by the 2001 war film “Black Hawk Down” to join the U.S. military “to give back to the men and women who gave their lives so that I could have a second chance.”
In her 10 years in the Army, Abdirahman was deployed to Iraq and met her husband, with whom she had three children. However, he began abusing her, which she said was a result of his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“My husband was a different person that we no longer recognized,” Abdirahman said. “It wasn’t easy surviving domestic abuse and taking on my newfound role as a single mother, struggling to care for them, at one point homeless, living in our car, poor and tired.”
Even through that struggle, Abdirahman said she refused to become dependent on the government, as many of her friends had in the past.
“Our lives, our pride and dignity can no longer be bought in exchange for votes that only keep the elite in power who disappear and abandon us after election season is over,” she said.
In many ways, Abdirahman is a perfect candidate to challenge Omar because she represents so many of the groups Omar attempts to exploit. Omar has hinged her image on the fact that she is a Muslim woman in America, but she cannot use that as an advantage over Abdirahman.
Abdirahman is not only a minority Muslim woman, but also a refugee and a survivor of domestic abuse. The only thing Omar probably won’t like about her is that, according to the Post Millennial, she is running as a Republican.
If Omar wants to be consistent in her support for minority women, she will not launch politically motivated attacks against Abdirahman. If she does, it will be clear her support for minority women only applies to those who agree with her politically.