SURVIVOR STORIES: Imam Mohamed Omar
Mohamed Omar is an Imam at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Minnesota, which was targeted in a bombing.
Mohamed Omar is an Imam at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Minnesota, which has a large community of East African refugees. He describes how Muslims became targetted after 9/11. Islamophobia was then ramped up by Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric; specifically, Trump identified Minnesota as a hotbed for Islamist extremism. The Islamic Center was then bombed by three men who described themselves as the ‘White Rabbit Militia.’ Omar was present in the building at the time of the attack. Omar implicates Trump’s rhetoric in motivating the attackers, who had travelled from Illinois to Minnesota to carry out the attack. This, and further targetting of the Minnesota’s Muslim community, has led to a sense of fear in America’s Muslim community.