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.
South Carolina fitness trainer’s autopsy raises more questions about mysterious death
Chaos erupts on American Airlines flight as unruly passenger allegedly bites fellow traveler midair
Olympian charged in Reflecting Pool vandalism tied to Dem fundraising giant
Obama-era inspection flaws in Iran could persist as experts warn of nuclear blind spots
Survey Report Shows 10x as Many Strong GOP Voters Are Sure of God Than Strong Dem Voters
Watch: Celebrating Colombians Fill Streets as Trump-Endorsed Candidate Takes Presidency
Daily on Energy: Hormuz traffic up, Interior cuts public comment, and Chevron powers huge Texas data center
AIPAC accuses Van Hollen of fanning ‘antisemitic tropes’ in new social media campaign
Watch: Emotional ‘Sharia Law Survivor’ Begs Schools to Keep Out Islamism, as Lib Teen Mocks Him Literally Behind His Back
Six prime ministers, nine lives: Downing Street’s ‘chief mouser’ Larry the cat outlasts another leader
NYT’s Gonna NYT: Paper Uses Father’s Day to Pretend Being Trans Can Make a Woman a ‘Father’
A timeline of Trump’s $14 million Reflecting Pool makeover
Cops could be forced into race-based guessing game after Supreme Court move, Thomas joins dissent
Judge rejects accused WHCA dinner shooter’s bid to disqualify Blanche and Pirro
Chicago’s deadly Juneteenth weekend leaves 7 dead as Trump shames Dem gov for inaction
“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.
South Carolina fitness trainer’s autopsy raises more questions about mysterious death
Chaos erupts on American Airlines flight as unruly passenger allegedly bites fellow traveler midair
Olympian charged in Reflecting Pool vandalism tied to Dem fundraising giant
Obama-era inspection flaws in Iran could persist as experts warn of nuclear blind spots
Survey Report Shows 10x as Many Strong GOP Voters Are Sure of God Than Strong Dem Voters
Watch: Celebrating Colombians Fill Streets as Trump-Endorsed Candidate Takes Presidency
Daily on Energy: Hormuz traffic up, Interior cuts public comment, and Chevron powers huge Texas data center
AIPAC accuses Van Hollen of fanning ‘antisemitic tropes’ in new social media campaign
Watch: Emotional ‘Sharia Law Survivor’ Begs Schools to Keep Out Islamism, as Lib Teen Mocks Him Literally Behind His Back
Six prime ministers, nine lives: Downing Street’s ‘chief mouser’ Larry the cat outlasts another leader
NYT’s Gonna NYT: Paper Uses Father’s Day to Pretend Being Trans Can Make a Woman a ‘Father’
A timeline of Trump’s $14 million Reflecting Pool makeover
Cops could be forced into race-based guessing game after Supreme Court move, Thomas joins dissent
Judge rejects accused WHCA dinner shooter’s bid to disqualify Blanche and Pirro
Chicago’s deadly Juneteenth weekend leaves 7 dead as Trump shames Dem gov for inaction
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.
