Lifestyle News Opinons Politics

Somali Community Leader: Yes, Ilhan Omar Married Her Brother To Keep Him in US

A new report adds weight to allegations that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota married her own brother.

The report in the U.K. Daily Mail quoted a man named Abdihakim Osman as saying that Omar had been desperate to find a way to keep her brother Ahmed Elmi in the country.

“No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,” Osman, 40, who keeps tabs on the Somali community around Minneapolis through a Facebook blog, said. Omar has called criticism of her marriage “Islamophobia.”


Omar married Ahmed Hirsi in 2002 in a Muslim ceremony which was not registered by the state as a legal marriage. Marriage documents show Elmi and Omar married in 2009.

Osman said that not long after Omar married Hirsi, the man he was told was Omar’s brother entered the picture.


Oregon judge limits federal agents’ tear gas use at Portland ICE protests
Cornyn denies MAGA pressure forced support for talking filibuster on SAVE Act
Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’
Trump calls SAVE America Act his ‘No. 1’ priority for House GOP
Obama Judge Gets Schooled by Appeals Court Following ‘Constitutionally Suspect’ Injunction Against DHS
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the ‘talking filibuster’ and the SAVE Act
FBI subpoenas Arizona county voting records related to notorious 2020 audit
Zuckerberg Sued: Meta’s AI Glasses Accused of Recording Intimate Moments, Sending Footage to Foreign Contractors
40+ House Republicans rally behind Markwayne Mullin for DHS, call it a ‘critical moment’ for border security
Storage facility raided as feds investigate alleged ISIS-inspired NYC bomb throwers
Judge disqualifies Trump-appointed leadership in New Jersey US attorney’s office
US Not Happy with Israel Over Latest Iran Strikes: Report
Biden-appointed judge in the hot seat after DHS fires back at ‘false’ claims about ICE facility
Alexander brothers learn fate in federal sex trafficking trial
Illegal immigrant charged for allegedly voting in every presidential election since 2008

See also  Judge to allow sex offender to question witnesses in Virginia locker room case

“People began noticing that Ilhan and Southside were often with a very effeminate young guy,” Osman said. “Southside” was a nickname Osman used for Hirsi. “He was very feminine in the way he dressed — he would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very, very, short shorts in the summer. People started whispering about him.”

He said there was no secrecy then about the young man’s identity.

“[Hirsi] and Ilhan both told me it was Ilhan’s brother and he had been living in London but he was mixing with what were seen as bad influences that the family did not like,” Osman said.

“So they sent him to Minneapolis as ‘rehab.’”

Osman said the wedding to Elmi was deliberately kept quiet, unlike her first marriage.

“When [Hirsi] and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited. It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community. I would say there were 100-150 people there,” he said.

But, “When she married Elmi, no one even knew about it,” he said, adding that he suspected someone outside the Somali community was needed for the marriage because community members would know they were siblings.


Oregon judge limits federal agents’ tear gas use at Portland ICE protests
Cornyn denies MAGA pressure forced support for talking filibuster on SAVE Act
Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’
Trump calls SAVE America Act his ‘No. 1’ priority for House GOP
Obama Judge Gets Schooled by Appeals Court Following ‘Constitutionally Suspect’ Injunction Against DHS
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the ‘talking filibuster’ and the SAVE Act
FBI subpoenas Arizona county voting records related to notorious 2020 audit
Zuckerberg Sued: Meta’s AI Glasses Accused of Recording Intimate Moments, Sending Footage to Foreign Contractors
40+ House Republicans rally behind Markwayne Mullin for DHS, call it a ‘critical moment’ for border security
Storage facility raided as feds investigate alleged ISIS-inspired NYC bomb throwers
Judge disqualifies Trump-appointed leadership in New Jersey US attorney’s office
US Not Happy with Israel Over Latest Iran Strikes: Report
Biden-appointed judge in the hot seat after DHS fires back at ‘false’ claims about ICE facility
Alexander brothers learn fate in federal sex trafficking trial
Illegal immigrant charged for allegedly voting in every presidential election since 2008

See also  UN nuclear watchdog says Iran nuclear site damaged in strikes

Omar was clear on one thing: She wanted to keep her brother in the U.S.

“She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school. We all thought she was just getting papers together to allow him to stay in this country,” Osman said.

“Once she had the papers they could apply for student loans.”

“They both moved to North Dakota to go to school but she was still married to [Hirsi]. In the Somali way, the only marriage that mattered was the one in the mosque,” he said. “Ilhan came back to Minneapolis all the time to see her family, but her brother didn’t come with her.”

Omar and Elmi divorced in 2017. Omar married Hirsi in a civil ceremony in 2018.

“They never parted,” Osman said of Omar and Hirsi.

They have since, however. Hirsi and Omar divorced in November. Omar has been accused of having an affair with a consultant to her campaign.

Story cited here.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter