Ilhan Omar Inexplicably Deletes Father’s Day Message from 2013

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.

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!?”:

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:

“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:

More questions poured in:

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.