• Welcome to the Internet Infidels Discussion Board.

Ilhan Omar's autobiography on the way

 
 
 
lpetrich

lpetrich

Contributor
Joined
Jul 27, 2000
Messages
26,850
Location
Eugene, OR
Gender
Male
Basic Beliefs
Atheist
This Is What America Looks Like - Ilhan Omar - Hardcover - My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman - her autobiography, due 05/26/2020.  Ilhan Omar also has biographical details.
An intimate and rousing memoir by progressive trailblazer Ilhan Omar—the first African refugee, the first Somali-American, and one of the first Muslim women, elected to Congress.
Click to expand...

IO was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 4, 1982, the youngest of 7 siblings. Her mother died when she was 2, and she was raised by her father and grandfather. Her family lived in Baidoa for a while, near the southern end of Somalia. But when IO was 8, her family fled the civil war there, going to a refugee camp in Dadaab, Garissa County, Kenya. After 4 years of vetting, her family moved to the US, first residing in Alexandria, VA, and then in Minneapolis, MN.

When she arrived in the US, IO didn't know a word of English, so she had to catch up there very fast. From what I've heard of her speaking, she is now very fluent, with only a slight accent.

She became a US citizen in 2000, at age 17.

She went to college in North Dakota State University, graduating in 2011, and she got into politics soon after. In 2012, she served as campaign manager for Minnesota State Senator Kari Dziedzic's in his re-election campaign, and in 2013, she managed Andrew Johnson's campaign for the Minneapolis City Council. Over 2012 - 2013, she was also a child-nutrition outreach coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education. Over 2013 - 2015, she was Andrew Johnson's Senior Policy Aide.

In 2016, she ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives, District 60B, in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. She won and served a full term. She was rather busy there, being an Assistant Minority Leader, serving in 3 committees, and authoring 38 bills.

In 2018, she ran for the US House of Representatives, District MN-05, and she won there also.

The end of the book blurb:
A beacon of positivity in dark times, Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms and yet maintained her signature grace, wit and love of country—all the while speaking up for her beliefs. Similarly, in chronicling her remarkable personal journey, Ilhan is both lyrical and unsentimental, and her irrepressible spirit, patriotism, friendship and faith are visible on every page. As a result, This is What America Looks Like is both the inspiring coming of age story of a refugee and a multidimensional tale of the hopes and aspirations, disappointments and failures, successes, sacrifices and surprises, of a devoted public servant with unshakable faith in the promise of America.
Click to expand...
 
In 2018, Ilhan Omar became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, the other one being Rashida Tlaib.

Representative Ilhan Omar | Representing the 5th District of Minnesota - her official site in Congress

Ilhan Omar | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives - Ilhan Omar

Her committees:
  • Education and Labor
    • Higher Education and Workforce Investment
    • Workforce Protections
  • Foreign Affairs
    • Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
    • Oversight and Investigations
  • Budget
She has sponsored 26 bits of legislation and cosponsored 448 others.
 
What about Ilhan Omar's brother?

The book that Loren Pechtel linked to is: "American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Takeover of the Democratic Party" From its Amazon page,
In American Ingrate, Federalist Senior Contributor Benjamin Weingarten exposes Ilhan Omar’s radical and revolutionary Left-Islamist agenda, her seminal role in the progressive takeover of the Democratic Party, and the dire threat she poses to U.S. national security by way of her collusion with subversive anti-American forces.
Click to expand...
 
Omar describes life as a fearless fighter in new memoir
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s metamorphosis from refugee to the first Somali-American in Congress has been well-documented. Now, Omar is out with a new memoir that offers her own spin on her path to prominence, starting with her childhood in Mogadishu. “This is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman,” set for release Tuesday, offers no revelations on some of the controversies that have dogged Omar. Instead, it sketches rugged years that Omar says made her a fearless fighter, unafraid to skirmish with President Trump and her frequent conservative critics.
Click to expand...
Including literal fighting with other children in her school years. “I wasn’t afraid of fighting. I felt like I was bigger and stronger than everyone else — even if I knew that wasn’t really the case. ... Fighting didn’t feel like a choice. It was a part of me. Respect goes both ways.”

IO met her first husband, Ahmed Hirsi, in Minneapolis when she was 16, and when she was 19, the two got married. She was born in 1982, and thus married in 2001. They had two children, but by 2008, they suffered financial stress and got divorced.
She then had what she called “a Britney Spears-style meltdown” in which she shaved her head and eloped with a man, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom she wrote she “spent so little time with that I wouldn’t even make him a footnote in my story if it weren’t for the fact that this event turned into the main headline later on.”
Click to expand...
She does not name him, and she denies rumors that that man is her brother. But she eventually got back together with AH, and the two had a third child.

Most recently, they have divorced and IO has married a political consultant who has worked for her: Omar marries political consultant, months after affair claim
 
In 2016, Ilhan Omar ran for the Minnesota House District 60B seat. She was 34 years old at the time, and she primaried incumbent Phyllis Kahn, someone who had been in office for 44 years. IO beat PK and another candidate with a margin of 11% for both of them. She then beat the Republican in the general election with a margin of 61%.
She describes a statehouse “hostile to my presence” because of her determination to attack the status quo, and recounts confronting a fellow Democratic lawmaker unhappy she’d won a leadership position.

The lawmaker told Omar she was different, and eventually said it was because she walks into a room “like a man.”

“A white man,” Omar said she responded.
Click to expand...
When she went on to Congress in 2018, she ran for MN-05, which was an open seat. She got 48% of the vote in the primary, beating her closest challenger by 13%, and she won in the general election by a margin of 56%. That margin is typical of her predecessors in that seat, Keith Ellison and Martin Olav Sabo.
 
Rep. Omar describes a bruising life in her new memoir - StarTribune.com
Omar's book fills in details of her life in Somalia before the country's government collapsed in 1991, forcing her family to flee. Her extended family, populated with teachers and civil servants, had been living what she describes as a comfortable middle-class existence at a compound in Mogadishu, "filled with African art, books of history, Somali poetry and music."

Unlike the experiences of many other Third World refugees, hers was not a life of destitute poverty

...
Omar, now 37, pins her political awakening to her early 20s. But as described in a chapter titled "Early Midlife Crisis," it was also a turbulent time when she split from Hirsi for the first time, married another man, enrolled in North Dakota State University, impulsively shaved her head, and suffered debilitating headaches.
Click to expand...
Then about her second husband,
Omar writes no more about how she met Elmi or why they decided to marry. But by 2016, when she was running for state Legislature, she writes that the brief marriage was spun by a Somali blog into an allegation "that I had married a relative [reportedly her brother] illegally, to get him entry into the United States" — which isn't true, she writes.

"That Somalis were some of my harshest critics might seem absurd. But they refused to accept me because I refused to kiss the ring," Omar writes. She credits her father, now retired after a decade as a postal worker, for refusing pressure from Somali elders to push her out of her first political race.
Click to expand...

She calls British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher "my greatest hero."
Despite vast political differences, Omar writes that she loves Thatcher's "Iron Lady" style, revealing that her father once gave her the same nickname: "Without any kind of special invitation or connections, time and time again she showed up in rooms filled with men and didn't have to do much to lead them to decide that she should be in charge."
Click to expand...
 
Ilhan Omar On Her Memoir And Moving The Needle Toward Progressive Policies : NPR
"I think often times you have to make a choice: whether you'll be a punching bag or you'll be somebody who's strong and stands up for themselves and for others," Omar tells NPR.

...
We might not have moved the needle on the nomination, but I think we certainly have moved the needle on the national conversation on the particular policies we've advocated for. "Medicare for All" is much more popular than it was before this election cycle, and we're having an honest discussion about canceling student debt. We're talking about economic and social injustices in ways that we haven't before. Taxing the wealthy is not just something that you say and people go, "Oh, my God." It's something that people are now actually debating and thinking about ways to be able to do that.

On why Biden should choose a person of color as his running mate

I think it would be really helpful for our party to continue to have diversity as not something we talk about, but something we celebrate and push forward.

... To have somebody who is really connected to the people who have been the backbone of the Democratic Party will help create, I think, the enthusiasm that Biden lacks right now with the majority of the base.
Click to expand...
 
Ilhan Omar believes that nutjob Tara Reade.

Sunday Times said:
Say what you like about Omar, and people have, and people will, she is undeniably a woman doing it on her own terms. “I am a natural starter of fires,” she writes in the book and she finishes with one more burst of flame, emphasising that she believes the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which Biden has denied. “I do believe Reade,” she says. “Justice can be delayed, but should never be denied.” If it was up to her, she says, Biden wouldn’t be the candidate.
Click to expand...

Ilhan Omar interview: “I am America’s hope and President Trump’s nightmare”
 
Derec said:
Ilhan Omar believes that nutjob Tara Reade.

Sunday Times said:
Say what you like about Omar, and people have, and people will, she is undeniably a woman doing it on her own terms. “I am a natural starter of fires,” she writes in the book and she finishes with one more burst of flame, emphasising that she believes the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which Biden has denied. “I do believe Reade,” she says. “Justice can be delayed, but should never be denied.” If it was up to her, she says, Biden wouldn’t be the candidate.
Click to expand...

Ilhan Omar interview: “I am America’s hope and President Trump’s nightmare”
Click to expand...
I found that interview, but it's paywalled. I'm not sure that I want to do a trial subscription just to read it.
 
lpetrich said:
Derec said:
Ilhan Omar believes that nutjob Tara Reade.

Sunday Times said:
Say what you like about Omar, and people have, and people will, she is undeniably a woman doing it on her own terms. “I am a natural starter of fires,” she writes in the book and she finishes with one more burst of flame, emphasising that she believes the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which Biden has denied. “I do believe Reade,” she says. “Justice can be delayed, but should never be denied.” If it was up to her, she says, Biden wouldn’t be the candidate.
Click to expand...

Ilhan Omar interview: “I am America’s hope and President Trump’s nightmare”
Click to expand...
I found that interview, but it's paywalled. I'm not sure that I want to do a trial subscription just to read it.
Click to expand...
I found a link where the story isn't paywalled:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-i-do-believe-tara-reades-claims-against-joe-biden

I'm not sure at all why she thinks that she's Trump's nightmare! That's a joke.
 
Titled link: Ilhan Omar: 'I do believe' Tara Reade's claims against Joe Biden | Fox News

That story only has one quote from her:
“I do believe Reade,” Omar told the British Sunday Times. “Justice can be delayed but should never be denied.”
Click to expand...
Ilhan Omar Says She Believes Tara Reade, But Will Still Vote for Joe Biden Against Donald Trump has the same quotes, and also notes these tweets from her:

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "@SwedJewFish @BDemocratsfor @biden_brigade @AliceEvansGruff Online harassment is horrible, believe me I can relate. I am truly sorry to hear about the death threats and the way you and others have been treated. I know how important it is to create space for people to share their stories, whether we all believe them 100% or not." / Twitter

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "@AliceEvansGruff Believing survivors is consistent with my values. Yes, I endorsed against Biden and I didn’t pick him as our nominee. With that said, in this interview I did on May 6th, we talked about that and quotes aren’t always in context. I will vote for him and help him defeat Trump." / Twitter

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "@AliceEvansGruff We can’t fend off perceived attacks with attacks on others. This is the most important election cycle of our lifetimes and we aren’t going to have a chance if we don’t spend our energy in mobilizing and building enthusiasm against Trump. That’s the goal we should all be united on" / Twitter
 
alessandra bastagli on Twitter: "I’ve been thinking a lot about this last chapter in @IlhanMN ‘s memoir. ..." / Twitter
I’ve been thinking a lot about this last chapter in @IlhanMN ‘s memoir. It’s a clarion call, of course, because she is singularly focused on our empowerment — even as life keeps throwing new challenges her way. One of the many remarkable things about Ilhan is...

... that she constantly renews herself. She is constantly thinking, how can I do better, how can I serve my community better, what do I need to study, do, advocate for next in order to effect change. And this is a conversation that I think is missing when it comes to our jobs.

Especially in publishing. Yes we’re suddenly getting more money & support to buy books on social justice, but what is our imprint’s bigger, long term plan regarding social justice? Are these just one-offs so we can check off that box & say we tried?

Yes HR departments are committed to hire “diverse” staff. But how are these people being mentored? How does their presence affect the decision making process about which books get published & how? Does the imprint know that diversity without inclusion is an exercise in futility?

Does HR think about economic diversity too? What about the CEO? The Little Brown walk out showed us that junior staff will stand up for what’s right. But so many of us (in my age group) now hold executive level roles. What are we doing about it?

Not just in terms of the books & authors we advocate for but every single day, in holding the higher ups accountable? In holding ourselves accountable? I know that for everything she has already achieved, Ilhan is not done with her changes. And neither am I. #nojusticenopeace

Since I’m here swatting at trolls anyway, thought I’d add that Ilhan’s brilliant memoir is out now. It’s called THIS IS WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE & you can get an indie near you to ship you a copy (some indies even have signed copies)
Click to expand...
noting
This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman | IndieBound.org
"Ilhan has been an inspiring figure well before her time in Congress. This book will give you insight into the person and sister that I see—passionate, caring, witty, and above all committed to positive change. It's an honor to serve alongside her in the fight for a more just world." —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom