Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) quietly deleted a six-year-old Father’s Day message from her social media profiles Tuesday morning, tacitly acknowledging critics who highlighted it Monday night to question her marital history.
Mohamad Tawhidi, an Islamic reformer who refers to himself as the “Imam of Peace,” revealed a 2013 post on Omar’s Twitter and Instagram profiles which named her father, “Nur Said.” Tawhidi then argued that, in keeping with Muslim culture, any children of this man would bear the surname “Nur Said” — which he said proved the ongoing speculation that when Omar married U.K. citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, she married her brother.
Your father is Nur Said?
Not: Nur Omar Mohamed?So you’re Ilhan Nur Said?
And you married Ahmed Nur Said,
You married your brother.
(Most Americans don’t know that in most Muslim countries, the surname is actually the father’s name)
R E S I G N
Ilhan in 2013 👇🏽 BUSTED. https://t.co/qaHrmgnhHT
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) September 17, 2019
Tawhidi made these statements between 11 PM and midnight EST on Monday evening, linking to the 2013 post from Omar, which remained visible overnight, according to archives of the page. Between 7 and 8 AM Tuesday morning, Omar or someone who manages her account deleted the post. Tawhidi quickly pointed out the scrubbing to his followers.
“Ilhan Omar has just deleted this tweet from 2013 that proves her father is Nur Said, which makes her Ilhan Nur Said (surnames are the fathers names in most Muslim/MENA countries), and that Ahmed Nur Said, who she married, is in fact her brother,” Tawhidi wrote. “Why did you delete it, @IlhanMN!?”:
Ilhan Omar has just deleted this tweet from 2013 that proves her father is Nur Said, which makes her Ilhan Nur Said (surnames are the fathers names in most Muslim/MENA countries), and that Ahmed Nur Said, who she married, is in fact her brother.
Why did you delete it, @IlhanMN!? pic.twitter.com/rRjwPyu2X7
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) September 17, 2019
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the congresswoman put out a statement Tuesday afternoon, claiming “Nur Said” is only a “nickname” for her father:
Rep. Omar and her family are subject to constant threats. When people write vile things on posts about people she loves—including disturbing doctored images of her father—she takes them down. Nur Said means “Happy Light” and it’s been her dad’s nickname since he was a kid. He has a public page with the same name. She isn’t deleting it for the disturbing and hateful reasons that are being implied by conspiracy theorists and legitimate media outlets shouldn’t be spreading conspiracy theories.
Before this statement, conservative journalists and activists questioned her actions, especially as Omar kept silent about the accusations.
“Did Ilhan Omar delete MORE evidence she married her brother?” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton wrote:
Did Ilhan Omar delete MORE evidence she married her brother? https://t.co/T9kKQGKVk2 https://t.co/JmXuSeuvjC
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) September 17, 2019
“Ilhan Omar has now deleted this tweet from 2013. This is extremely concerning because Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother and this appears to be further evidence that she married him,” said Caleb Hull, a videographer and consultant.
“If there was some kind of explanation for this, why would she delete the tweet?” he continued:
Ilhan Omar has now deleted this tweet from 2013.
This is extremely concerning because Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother and this appears to be further evidence that she married him.
If there was some kind of explanation for this, why would she delete the tweet? pic.twitter.com/lzgCuQWHCG
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) September 17, 2019
More questions poured in:
It also reiterates a clear pattern in which Omar sketchily deletes old, incriminating posts when people find them.
Remember there is ample proof that she married her brother and Nur Said is their father from Instagram, but the media didnt use them bc they didnt trust screenshots
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) September 17, 2019
Why did you delete this tweet, @IlhanMN? pic.twitter.com/5pIl6Fu1Qg
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) September 17, 2019
Tweet is from 2013, original screengrab cut off the date pic.twitter.com/YuBv0oYbMe
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) September 17, 2019
Hi @IlhanMN why did you delete your Happy Father’s Day tweet? https://t.co/bIEFWtnAtU pic.twitter.com/R1LTYF6I21
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 17, 2019
While Omar has denied that she married her brother, she has largely failed to extinguish the speculation.
A Minneapolis Star Tribune investigation completed over the summer found that Omar “improperly used campaign funds to pay for out-of-state travel unrelated to her state legislative duties” but was unable to determine why Omar filed joint tax returns with a man other than her husband in 2014 and 2015.
As Breitbart News reported:
A Minnesota state ethics board investigation found earlier this month that Omar had improperly used campaign funds to pay for out-of-state travel unrelated to her state legislative duties, and to pay for legal expenses related to her taxes.
The report also found that Omar had filed taxes jointly in 2014 and 2015 with a man named Ahmed Hirsi, who was not her husband at the time. She was married at the time to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi — though Hirsi fathered her children. Omar claims to have married Hirsi in an Islamic ceremony in 2002, then divorced him before marrying Elmi legally. She then divorced Elmi before marrying Hirsi legally. However, she had filed tax returns with Hirsi before doing so.
The state ethics board’s findings raised new questions about Omar’s marriage to Elmi. For years, conservative bloggers at PJ Media, Powerline, and elsewhere had suggested that Elmi may have been her brother. (The evidence includes an Instagram post, now deleted, that features Elmi holding a child, allegedly Omar’s, and referring to her as his niece.)
Additionally, the Washington Post accessed documents that showed that Omar and Hirisi “may not have separated during her marriage to Elmi, adding fuel to speculation the marriage may have been for immigration purposes,” as Breitbart News reported.
Speculation did not stop there, with the Powerline blog claiming Omar “not only married her brother but also received asylum as a child after her family used a false name” in an extensive piece published in July.
Omar has yet to address the reason for the sudden deletion of this innocuous purported message to her father.
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