Ilhan Omar by other standards and, at best, see a woman who has diverged from the values and interests of her Somali American constituents. At worst, they see a figure who has remained destructively provincial in her vision of foreign affairs, writes Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
On three different occasions over the last 18 months, I have headed to Somaliland or Kenya for research purposes, largely to talk about Horn of Africa politics, Great Power competition (the United States is absent without leave while China and perhaps even Russia make inroads), and regional security. Given both the importance of the U.S. and the family ties many Somalis have with the Somali diaspora, and the fact that one of my trips was in August when so many of the Somali diaspora returned home for the summer holidays, American politics loomed large in coffee house discussions and meetings with civil society and political leaders.
Over at the Hill, I have written of how frustrated many Somalis were that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, had not used her seat to advance U.S.-Somali ties.
Instead, Omar has made the Palestinian issue a cornerstone of her congressional activism, apparently at the urging both of Basim Sabri, her second-largest donor and a Palestinian American real estate tycoon from Minneapolis who donated maximum amounts to Omar’s congressional campaign, as well as his daughter Karmel, a fundraiser for causes in the Gaza Strip. No group or charity can operate in Gaza, however, without cooperating with Hamas, which has ruled the Palestinian territory with an iron fist since 2006.
Basim Sabri is a polarizing figure for Minnesota’s Somali American community. A convicted felon, Somalis say Sabri is essentially a slum lord or exploits the Somali community. Politicians need donors, but to ally and embrace Sabri, a man Somali Americans believe exploits them, rubs Omar’s constituents the wrong way.
Omar’s foreign policy partisanship in the broader Middle East has ailso raised Somali suspicion. Today, the United Arab Emirates invests in Somaliland, while Turkey and Qatar both back more Islamist causes in Mogadishu and shun the UAE for its Somaliland investment.
Omar’s use of Turkish and Qatari press as a platform, along with her fierce criticism of the UAE and Saudi Arabia from her House Foreign Affairs Committee perch, suggest she continues to internalize the divisions and partisanship which exist in Somalia. This is not to condemn the former and absolve the latter, but rather to recognize that it is hypocritical to condemn the UAE and Saudi Arabia without recognizing that Turkey is among the world’s worst offenders in terms of press freedom and that both Turkey and Qatar are essentially terror sponsors.
Somalilanders further suspect that a partisan approach in the Horn of Africa context leads Omar to ignore, if not seek to undercut, Somaliland’s more liberal democracy in favor of Mogadishu’s government, wherein an appointed parliament of regional and clan elders alone selected a president.
Many Democrats in the U.S. have embraced Omar because of her liberal social stances, as well as her antagonism toward Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. To see her as a representative of Somalis, however, would be to confuse her ethnicity with ideological diversity. Both Somali Americans and Somalis remaining in the Horn of Africa judge Omar by other standards and, at best, see a woman who has diverged from the values and interests of her Somali American constituents. At worst, they see a figure who has remained destructively provincial in her vision of foreign affairs.
About Michael Rubin
Senior Fellow
Research Areas
Arab politics, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Horn of Africa
Bio & Experience
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East.
A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre-and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).
Dr. Rubin has a Ph.D. and an MA in history from Yale University, where he also obtained a BS in biology.
Experience
-
- Foreign Military Studies Office: Contract Analyst, 2012–present
- Naval Postgraduate School: Senior Lecturer, 2007–21
- Middle East Quarterly: Editor, 2004–09
- Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad): Political Adviser, 2003–04
- Office of the Secretary of Defense: Staff Adviser, Iran and Iraq, 2002–04
- Council on Foreign Relations: International Affairs Fellow, 2002–03
- Hebrew University (Jerusalem): Fellow, The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2001–02
- Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs: Fellow, 2000–01
- Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan): Visiting Lecturer, 2000–01
- Yale University: Lecturer, Department of History, 1999–2000
- Iranian Studies: Assistant Editor, 1994–97
Education
Ph.D. and MA in history; BS in biology, Yale University
Contact
Send Email: mrubin@aei.org
Twitter: @mrubin1971
Media Request
Brady Africk
Tell: 202-924-0784
Send Email: Brady.Africk@AEI.org
