House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s upcoming speech at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet next month.
CAIR is a pro-Palestinian organization with alleged ties to Islamic terror groups. The U.S. Department of Justice has listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in funding millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also named CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014, along with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Omar is scheduled to speak at CAIR-LA’s annual banquet on March 23.
McCarthy condemned Omar’s scheduled speech during an interview last week on “Outnumbered Overtime.” (RELATED: Conservative Jewish Organization Condemns Omar’s Comments On Israel)
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“This isn’t the first time, when you look what she’s been doing earlier in Congress as well. You look what she’s going on — hopefully she’s canceling the dinner, that she’s going to have a dinner here in the next month where an individual that’s also going to be speaking at that dinner, talks about the joy of 20 Jews being killed,” McCarthy stated. “This is not the place we want to associate ourselves with and it shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”
It’s unclear who exactly McCarthy was referencing, but she’ll be Hassan Shibly, the chief executive director for CAIR-Florida, will also be speaking at the event. He’s previously stated that Hezbollah and Hamas are not terrorist organizations.
Republican Jewish Coalition spokesperson Neil Boylan Strauss told The Daily Caller on Monday:
We are dismayed, but not surprised by Omar’s decision, much like the rest of her decisions to date. CAIR is not a mainstream organization. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism funding case, and has very uncomfortable ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Congresswoman Omar was just recently forced to give a halfhearted apology for her anti-Semitic words. If she wishes to avoid another moment that causes even her own party to turn against her, she aught to reconsider her decision to speak to CAIR.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 15: U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN)speaks to media outside the US Capitol on January 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. Members of the Freshman Class held a press conference on the government shutdown. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Omar has been accused of pushing anti-Semitism in the past. Earlier this month, she was accused of pushing anti-Semitism for saying the pro-Israel lobby buys support for Israel from members of Congress. Members of both political parties criticized those comments, for which Omar later apologized.
She has also admitted support for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which is considered by some to be anti-Semitic. Omar also implied that Israel is not a democracy, and she’s previously accused Israel of “[hypnotizing] the world,” although she has since apologized for it.
It was also announced Monday that Omar’s colleague from Michigan, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, will be the guest speaker at CAIR-Michigan’s 19th annual “Faith-Led, Justice Driven” banquet. Tlaib has faced her own accusations of anti-Semitism.