(JTA) — Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned an anti-Muslim display in the West Virginia statehouse linking the 9-11 terror attacks to Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
The display on Friday in the statehouse rotunda showed a photo of the World Trade Center in flames immediately after one of the Twin Towers was struck by an airplane with the caption “Never Forget – you said….” Underneath is a photo of Omar, a Muslim refugee from Somalia who wears a hijab. “I am the proof – you have forgotten,” reads the caption there.
The display was part of “WV GOP Day” at the statehouse.
The West Virginia House’s sergeant at arms, Anne Lieberman, resigned on Friday after being accused of making an anti-Muslim remark during an argument with House Democrats who objected to the display. She allegedly said “all Muslims are terrorists.” She denied making the comment later in an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Lieberman is Jewish.
Omar responded to the display in a tweet which said: “No wonder why I am on the ‘Hitlist’ of a domestic terrorist and ‘Assassinate Ilhan Omar’ is written on my local gas stations.”
Democratic Del. Mike Pushkin, who is Jewish, on the house floor said of the display: “It’s ugly, it’s hateful and there’s absolutely no place for it in American politics … I love everybody in the state no matter what they look like, who they pray to, who they love. I’m tired of it. It disgusts me.”
“I’m proud to live in a country that somebody can come into this country with absolutely nothing and wind up in the halls of Congress representing the state of Minnesota,” he also said.
Republican House speaker Roger Hanshaw said in a statement that “The West Virginia House of Delegates unequivocally rejects hate in all of its forms.”
The state GOP condemned the sign, which is said had been put up without its knowledge.
