It looks like America is slowly moving away from racism and the ‘war’ against immigrants.
America is about to makers should US voters stick to their promise of electing two Muslim women to Congress in the midterm election next week.
If elected, the two Muslim women will make history especially now during Trump’s regime, who has strongly opposed Muslims and immigrants in the country.
Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee is likely to be elected to the US House of Representatives in a heavily-Democratic district in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where she is the party’s nominee. In 2016, Ilhan was elected a Democratic Farmer Labor Party member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, making her the first Somali-American legislator elected to office in the United States.
Ilhan Omar has forged a progressive political identity for supporting free college education, housing for all and criminal justice reforms.
Rashida Tlaib, a social worker born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents will be the second Muslim woman to make history in America by being elected to Congress. Rashida is an American politician and attorney as well as a former Democratic member of the Michigan House of Representatives.
With no Republican opposing Tlaib, she will be elected next week to a two-year term to replace longtime Congressman John Conyers who stepped down in December amid sexual harassment allegations and failing health.
If elected, the two, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib will be the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress in all of Amercia’s history and will increase the total number of Muslims in Congress to three.
Congressman Andre Carson, who is Muslim and African American, is likely to be re-elected in the Democratic district in the state of Indiana.
The expected electoral milestone is in stark contrast to the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment around the country especially after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported a 21% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the first six months of 2018.
Both Rashida and Omar have positioned themselves as opposition to President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. The two have strongly opposed Trump’s restrictive immigration policies. They have in the recent past proposed a universal health care system something that has been opposed by Republicans and fought for the abolishment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to Colin Christopher of the Islamic Society of North America, the election of President Trump was a wake-up call.
“Now we’re seeing communities that were once absent from public conversations… all of a sudden are really engaged,” he said.
The two women are part of a historically diverse crop of candidates; by race, gender, and sexuality challenging Republican incumbents. According to the polls, the election next week will give Democrats control of the lower house of Congress in a rebuke of Trump’s administration. while the Senate is expected to continue having Republican control.
Polls indicate next week’s election will likely hand Democrats control of the lower house of Congress in a rebuke of Trump’s administration. The Senate is seen as more likely to stay in Republican majority control.
The election of the two ‘immigrants’ will come as a blow to President Trump who yesterday said that he will bring to an end the right to citizenship for children born to non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants on US soil.
Speaking in an interview with Axios, President Trump said that it could be done sing legislation but said that he would use an executive order instead.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t. You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order,” Trump told Axios.