New York Post Slammed For Ripping Ilhan Omar With 9/11 Cover Photo: ‘You Are Pure Trash’

New York Post Slammed For Ripping Ilhan Omar With 9/11 Cover Photo: ‘You Are Pure Trash’

In response to remarks Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made about the aftereffect of 9/11 at a Council of American-Islamic Relations banquet that has been met with over-the-top conservative backlash, the New York Post poured gasoline on that fire with an extremely provocative cover photo showing the World Trade Center explosion.

Just to recap, Omar delivered a 20-minute speech at a CAIR event last month, a week after a white supremacist gunman killed 50 Muslims in New Zealand. The Democratic lawmaker took the opportunity to call for Muslim activism in the face of growing Islamophobic violence before noting that Muslims were relegated to second-class citizenship following the 9/11 attacks.

She then made the following remarks that drew the ire of right-wingers (emphasis added):

“Here’s the truth. For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange and that I am trying to make myself look pleasant. You have to say that this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, and I am going to talk to them and ask them why. Because that is the right you have.”

Earlier this week, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) reacted to his Democratic colleague by saying she was the first member of Congress to “ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something.'”

This was followed by Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade openly wondering whether Omar considers herself an “American first,” comments he attempted to walk back on Wednesday afternoon.

Omar, who has been on the receiving end of withering criticism for months now, fired back at Kilmeade and Crenshaw, calling them out for “dangerous incitement” while noting that she’s received death threats. She also told late-night host Stephen Colbert Wednesday night that she is “as American as everyone else.”

While one would have hoped that this made-up controversy would die down, especially since it is obvious that there was a bad-faith and willful misreading of her comments, the New York Post — owned by Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch — brought us back to reality.

This is the very definition of “dangerous incitement,” and a number of journalists, observers and critics pointed that out Thursday morning when the cover came out.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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