Fairfax County School Board Member Abrar Omeish countered a motion for a moment of silence for 9/11 victims and heroes with a motion to acknowledge “structural discrimination” against Muslims in America.
Amidst a motion that called for a moment of silence for the victim’s of 9/11, Abrar Omeish called for a counter-motion to recognize systemic discrimination and profiling that Muslims’ have faced after 9/11:
“I do ask why can we not also explicitly recognize the extensive and unwarranted structural discrimination and ethnic and religious profiling following 9/11 that tens of thousands of FCPS students experience on a daily basis” Omeish stated. “The pain that trillions of dollars have gone into creating and perpetuating and that continues in our very classrooms today.”
Omeish went on to say that “over half of this country after 9/11 holds unfavorable views towards Islam. According to the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding, a study in 2020 found that Muslims are the most likely religious group to experience discrimination at a whopping 60 percent after 9/11.”
Omeish then referred to a traffic stop that led to her arrest in 2019 in which she was pulled over for failing to stop before turning right on a red light. “And this hits close to home too,” she explained. “Many of you know that just over two years ago, even I was profiled as a threat in one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.” A video of her arrest shows that she refused to follow commands of the officer such as a request for license and registration, and a request to exit the vehicle.
Immediately after Omeish finished speaking, a citizen in the audience stood up and appeared to condemn what she had said, though much of what she said is inaudible. A board member told the concerned citizen to “please sit down and stay quiet.”
This past June, Omeish addressed students of Falls Church’s High School students during commencement and informed the students to remember their “jihad.” In her speech, Omeish told graduates that, “our world is overwhelmed with need. We struggle with human greed, racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, white supremacy, growing wealth gaps, disease, climate crisis, extreme poverty amidst luxury and waste right next door. And the list goes on.”
On a Muslim holiday in May, Omeish tweeted that it “hurts my heart to celebrate while Israel kills Palestinians & desecrates the Holy Land right now. Apartheid & colonization were wrong yesterday and will be today, here and there.”