WASHINGTON (Middle East Eye ) - Dozens of Muslim congressional staff members are calling on leaders of the House of Representatives to take action against Islamophobia, following a series of anti-Muslim attacks on lawmaker Ilhan Omar.
In an open letter published, 62 Muslim staffers said that U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert’s recent Islamophobic comments against Omar had created “a feeling of anxiety and fear” on Capitol Hill.
“Witnessing unchecked harassment of one of only three Muslim Members of Congress - and the only visible Muslim Member - we feel that our workplace is neither safe nor welcome,” read the letter which was also signed by 378 allied staffers.
“We must now come to work every day knowing that the same Members and staff who perpetuate Islamophobic tropes and insinuate that we are terrorists, also walk by us in the halls of Congress.”
The letter came shortly after a video surfaced on Facebook where Boebert likened Omar to a bomb-carrying terrorist. In the video, she laughed and said: “I look to my left and there she is - Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.’”
Omar, alongside Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, is one of the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress.