{"id":43545,"date":"2021-11-26T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T01:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-rep-boebert-apologizes-to-muslims-for-omar-remarks\/"},"modified":"2021-11-27T01:37:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T01:37:00","slug":"gop-rep-boebert-apologizes-to-muslims-for-omar-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-rep-boebert-apologizes-to-muslims-for-omar-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Rep. Boebert apologizes to Muslims for Omar remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks at a news conference held by members of the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29. Boebert apologized Friday for using anti-Muslim language in describing a recent encounter she had with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press file)<\/span>Andrew Harnik<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2013 Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert apologized Friday for using anti-Muslim language in describing a recent encounter she had with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

In her apology, Boebert didn\u2019t address Omar\u2019s criticism that Boebert made up her story about the encounter at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

Boebert tweeted<\/a> that \u201cI apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a video clip<\/a> posted by a Twitter account called PatriotTakes, Boebert made the remarks this holiday break. In it, she says she and a staff member were taking a Capitol elevator when she saw an alarmed Capitol police officer running toward them. She said she turned to her left and spotted Omar standing beside them.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Well, she doesn\u2019t have a backpack. We should be fine,\u201d Boebert recalled saying, drawing laughs from her audience. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up,\u201d Omar tweeted late Thursday.<\/a> \u201cSad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnti-Muslim bigotry isn\u2019t funny and shouldn\u2019t be normalized,\u201d Omar continued. \u201cCongress can\u2019t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslim tropes get no condemnation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Telephone calls and emails seeking comment from Boebert and Omar weren\u2019t immediately returned Friday.<\/p>\n

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Boebert\u2019s remarks in a Friday statement urging GOP House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders to repudiate Boebert\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

It said Boebert\u2019s allusion to a backpack is an \u201cIslamophobic smear that all Muslims are terrorists,\u201d as well as her use of the term \u201cjihad squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR\u2019s national deputy director, told CNN Friday<\/a> that \u201cto make this disgusting joke, misuse an Islamic term, is beyond the pale.\u201d Mitchell explained that \u201cjihad\u201d is a sacred term referring to \u201cany struggle taken up for the sake of God,\u201d including charity work and fighting for social justice.<\/p>\n

Omar and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib sometimes refer to themselves as \u201cthe squad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks at a news conference held by members of the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29. Boebert apologized Friday for using anti-Muslim language in describing a recent encounter she had with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press file)Andrew Harnik DENVER \u2013 Colorado Republican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43545"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}