Politicians, activists and celebrities have joined an outpouring of support for US congresswoman Ilhan Omar after President Donald Trump retweeted a video that was edited to suggest she was dismissive of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Some called Trump’s move Islamophobic and an “incitement” to violence against the Somali-American politician, while others said it put her “life in danger”.
The video Trump retweeted on Friday pulls a snippet of Omar’s recent speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in which she described the 2001 attack on New York’s World Trade Center as “some people did something” and includes news footage of the hijacked planes
hitting the Twin Towers.
Trump also tweeted: “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”
Neither Trump’s tweet nor the video included her full quote or the context of her comments.
In a statement on Sunday, Omar said she has faced increased death threats since President Trump’s tweet, adding that it was “endangering lives” and “it has to stop”.
We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop. pic.twitter.com/gwB2kDUIRp
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) April 15, 2019
