Loyalty and Allegiance

Featured today on the front page of a notoriously progressive but so-called unbiased website is this story, suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar is somehow more American than our beautiful and gracious First Lady, Melania Trump, because Omar (not her real name, some say) was naturalized (perhaps illegally) six years before the FLOTUS.

Besides the complicated hierarchy of victimhood brought to us by the left’s concept of intersectionality, progressives have now created a hierarchy of citizenship legitimacy, based upon years as a U.S. citizen–or maybe this is just an example of their anti-white or anti-Slovenian racism.

As one writer opined:

I guess Ilhan’s seniority in the citizen department qualifies her to make anti-American and anti-Semitic comments with impunity.

One has to wonder how the left keeps track of where someone lands on the intersectionality scale. Are a certain number of brownie points (is that racist?) awarded for each variable? Thus, you get X points for non-white skin, and more as skin progressively darkens; X points for non-Christian religion; X points for being an immigrant; X points for female sex, with extra points for “transitioning” to female; X points for being non-heterosexual, etc. But I digress …

Putting aside the issue of whether Omar (or whatever her name is) legitimately holds U.S. citizenship, a bigger question is why she not only makes anti-American statements but she also seems to consider herself to be more Somalian than American. Consider her tweet from 2012, sent 12 years after she (allegedly) became a U.S. citizen:

Why is every peak of hope dashed in Somalia? Is it because we are peace hating, violence prone malignant society? [sic]

[emphasis added to quotes]

In Somalia. We.

She’s talking about society in Somalia and includes herself in the “we” of the people, of that society, in Somalia.

Obviously, Omar still identified then with the people of Somalia, not with the people or the society in and of the USA.

Lest you think this is splitting hairs and that this happened 7 years ago, consider this incident from last month:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) began to refer to Somalia as “my country” before catching herself and calling it the “country I came from” during a recent speech. …

“We have always been about creating a more perfect union, an inclusive one. One that is not just tolerant, but accepting. And so since the first day this president introduced the Muslim ban knowing my coun—the country I came from was on that and that my country now was on the track of implementing fascist laws, I knew that I had to speak up,” Omar said. …

The comments drew criticism from some conservative journalists, who questioned if Omar identifies “as an American or a Somalian.”

Of note is that  Omar came to the U.S. about age 9, after having lived in Kenya for 4 years, which means she lived in Somalia for a grand total of her first 5 years. Is a 5-year-old even aware of the concept of nationality? 5 years in Somalia, 4 in Kenya, and 27 in the USA. With what nation would you expect her to identify? And yet …

Identification (race, gender) is a key concept among the left, but national identification would be especially important among conservatives, because it identifies allegiance. In the case of a U.S. representative, which citizens, which people, perhaps which non-citizens, does she actually believe she represents in the House?

These aren’t the only times that Omar’s self-identification has been questioned. The above story mentions a 2015 event at which Omar spoke to the Revolution Somali Youth League:

You guys have the ability to make an impact on where our nation is headed, not only here in the United States, but even in our nation back home.

What is the Revolution Somali Youth League? According to one writer,

The Revolution Somali Youth League is a group whose “mission is to create a better future for all Somalis by revitalizing the great nation we call Somalia,” according to its Facebook page.

“We aspire to galvanize all Somali youth around the world to recommit themselves to the challenges of nation building,” the group’s description continues.

The Facebook page continues:

We aim to instill the true principles of Islam, Nationalism, Self-Reliance, Brotherhood, Compromise and Self-Preservation into the hearts and minds of the Somali people.

Who exactly comprise “the Somali people,” or “the Somali nation?”

Further examination of the Facebook page reveals that this group is a student group at the University of Minnesota. Are they naturalized citizens? Do these members of the “diaspora” consider themselves to be  Somalians or Americans? If both, then which identification is most important? To which “nation” do they hold the higher allegiance?

Rep. Omar recently traveled to Africa with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Little has been said about another trip Omar made to Africa.

In 2016, she went to Somalia with her father and her husband, but not her legal husband, who may in fact be her brother.  Instead, she went with her first husband.  A 2016 Somali news article identified the man who accompanied her as her second, legal husband, although he was not that man! Captions on photos misidentified him.

How could such a  “mistake” happen? How could a reporter possibly get the man’s name wrong? Did the first husband impersonate the second, legal husband? Did she introduce him to the Somali president by the wrong name? If so, then why? If not, then how would the Somali reporter learn the wrong name?

While the Somali news story got things wrong (unless they were deliberately misled), Minnesota-based Alpha News got it right:

Representative-elect Ilhan Omar is spending time in Mogadishu, Somalia with her father and cultural husband Ahmed Hirsi before she is officially sworn in as State Representative for House District 60B.

Omar originally traveled to her birthplace for the elections occurring in Somalia. …

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh invited Omar to meet with him before the elections took place. Accompanied by her husband, Omar spoke about the advances in women’s rights seen in Somalia.

Mogadishu radio station Radio Dalsan, which first broke the story of Omar’s trip, identified her husband as Ahmed Elmi, not Ahmed Hirsi. Alpha News has closely followed developments related to Omar’s marriage history. She is currently legally married to a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi who currently resides in the United Kingdom.

As reported in August, evidence gathered by Alpha News suggests Elmi may have sibling connections to Omar. Omar, who is currently in a relationship with her partner Ahmed Hirsi is seen in the photos taken by Radio Dalsan.

That story was also from 2016, before Omar was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and right before she took office as a MN state legislator. Therefore, 3 years ago her unusual marriage status was known in Minnesota, if under-reported nationwide.

Not reported is who paid for her trip to Somalia. Did the Somali government? If so, was the trip a gift that should be documented on her taxes, the ones that she illegally filed in a joint return with the wrong husband?

What documentation did her “cultural husband” use to travel, such that he was identified in Somali media as another man altogether?

Did whoever paid for the trips for Omar, her father, and her cultural husband know that the man identified as her husband wasn’t really her legal husband?

As with other trips, did Omar incorrectly use campaign funds for the trip to Somalia? If so, did she report it correctly?

So many questions.

But the story raises other questions, when it states that Omar traveled to Somalia for the Somalian election. Is she a dual citizen? Did she vote in that election? If not, then why was it important for her to go there for their election?

Whether or not the U.S. allows dual citizenship or allows U.S. citizens to vote in foreign elections, it seems pertinent to know whether Omar retains Somali citizenship and has voted in their elections. Why? Because she’s on record accusing Jewish Americans of divided loyalties:

At a recent event, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said, in a reference to American Jewish supporters of Israel, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says that it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” 

Many would argue that Omar herself is guilty of pushing the Somali “nation” in Minnesota towards allegiance to a foreign country.

The notoriously liberal Los Angeles Times editorial board believes that dual citizenship is inadvisable:

Before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, immigrants must take an oath that says, in part, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.”

That language seems to firmly establish a principle of “one person, one country.” But even though it sounds unequivocal, it is not. In fact, it is entirely possible for naturalized U.S. citizens to retain citizenship in another country, or for a native-born American to claim citizenship in a second country. On the face of it, this is an odd arrangement that challenges the notion that citizenship is an expression of national loyalty. How can a person be equally loyal to two countries?

How, indeed? An even better question is:

How can a member of the U.S. House of Representatives be equally loyal to two countries?

Or, in Omar’s case, seemingly more loyal to her birth country?

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