WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Far-left Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota wants American Muslims to practice “solidarity” with homosexuals and gender-confused people, a call for unity in one of the rockiest pairings in the Left’s identity-politics coalition.
Progressive radio host Dean Obeidallah recently interviewed Omar on his SiriusXM show, during which they discussed the tension between their shared religion and their politics, which came to a head last month when the Muslim-majority city of Hamtramck, Michigan, voted to prohibit the flying of LGBT “pride” flags on government buildings, which sparked a bitter local debate and drew grave lamentations from liberals across the country.
Omar (one of four female minority Democrats in Congress collectively known as “the Squad” for their leftist solidarity) suggested that, because Muslims and people who identify as LGBT are both supposedly “marginalized communit[ies]” in the United States, the former should not “punch down” against the latter. “Solidarity for us has been lifesaving, and that solidarity needs to exist for others whose lives need to be protected.”
“We should not be the ones who are, you know, making people not be proud to celebrate who they are and who they choose to be,” she continued.
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The American Left has anointed itself an “ally” of both Muslims and LGBTs, as part of their claims to a monopoly on representing the interests of all racial, religious, and sexual minorities in a society supposedly rigged against them. But the relationship is sometimes a contentious one thanks to conflicts between the groups’ values.
Islam teaches that homosexuality is a grave sin punishable by death, and to this day, majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East subject homosexuals to criminal penalties, violence, and alleged abuse unheard of in America, yet liberals tend to hold this record to a strikingly different standard than they do to mainstream Christian and conservative views on homosexuality.
Leftists regularly cast LGBT-identifying Americans as ongoing victims of institutionalized discrimination and deep-seated cultural bigotry, with the labels “homophobia” and “transphobia” commonly deployed against individuals who merely hold religious views of sexual morality incompatible with homosexual activity or object to the notion that gender is a malleable social construct, while nevertheless treating individuals with same-sex attraction or gender confusion with compassion and respect.
This double standard is most commonly seen in the corporate world, where left-wing companies mark June “Pride Month” with a bombardment of rainbow branding and pro-LGBT messages in western markets, but not in the Middle East, while entertainment giants such as Disney push pro-LGBT messaging in content for American children but agree to keep it out of Mideast markets in the name of “cultural sensitivity.”