Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular US congresswoman, has defended her colleague Ilhan Omar after a conservative US tabloid accused the Muslim politician of trivialising the 9/11 terror attack.

Ms Omar made a speech at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event in Los Angeles on 23 March, in which she discussed the rise of Islamophobia in the US.

A brief line from her speech, “some people did something”, was used on the front page of The New York Post on 11 April. The quote had been placed over an image of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre.

Democrats were outraged – they said the quote had been taken out of context and the cover was a bad-faith attack on Ms Omar.

“I’m not going to quote the NY Post’s horrifying, hateful cover,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter.

US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Show all 20 1 /20 US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic candidate Ilhan Omar is celebrates with her husband's mother after she won a congress place, becoming the first Muslim woman to be elected into congress alongside Rashida Tlaib Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic House candidate, from Kansas, Sharice Davids (left) and her mom Crystal celebrate after she won. Davids is the first lesbian Native American Congresswoman by beating Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder. Davids is one of several first-time female candidates that helped the Democratic Party takeover in the House of Representatives EPA US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican Marsha Blackburn celebrates after winning the race for senate in Tennessee. In doing so she became that state’s first female senator AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic House candidate Sharice Davids cheer and cry after learning she won EPA US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Ayanna Pressley beaome Massachusetts’ first black congresswoman by defeating 10-term Republican Michael Capuano AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican candidate Young Kim has become the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democrat Jared Polis won his seat and became the US’s first ever openly gay governor AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Jean Kasselman (left) and Teresa Booker, supporters of Democratic candidate for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District Sharice Davids, react to election results Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican Kristi Noem hugs a supporter after being announced as the new governor of South Dakota. Noem made history by being the first female governor of the state AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Gabierla Martinez and Cesar Delgado cheer on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis REUTERS US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest women ever elected to Congress, representing New York’s 14th congressional district AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib celebrates with family and friends at her midterm election night party in Detroit after won and also became the nation’s first Muslim woman to congress alongside Ilhan Omar who was also elected Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic candidate for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District Sharice Davids react to election results Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Already having become the first Native American woman to chair a state political party, Deb Haaland has now become the joint-first Native American woman to be elected to congress, alongside Sharice Davids Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cheer during her election night party in the Queens Borough AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Young Kim hugs her son Alvin after she won a seat in congress AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cheer AFP/Getty Images US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Asma Mohammed and Ashley Fairbanks celebrate as results come in at Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar's election night headquarters AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democrat Deb Haaland hugs a voter REUTERS US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic House candidate from Kansas Sharice Davids cheer and cry after learning she won her race EPA

She continued: “Here’s 1 fact: [Ilhan Omar] is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. She’s done more for 9/11 families than the GOP who won’t even support healthcare for 1st responders- yet are happy to weaponize her faith.”

The New York representative also criticised Republican Dan Crenshaw for attacking Ms Omar and not supporting the victim fund. It is set to close in December 2020 if congress does not reauthorise it.

“You refuse to cosponsor the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund, yet have the audacity to drum resentment towards Ilhan w/completely out-of-context quotes,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.

“In 2018, right-wing extremists were behind almost ALL US domestic terrorist killings. Why don’t you go do something about that?”

A report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), published in January 2019, found that every terrorist murder in the US in 2018 was linked to right-wing extremism.

Ms Omar is one of the first two Muslim women to sit in congress and has frequently been targeted by right-wing US politicians and public figures.

At the CAIR event, the Minnesota representative criticised Donald Trump’s attacks on Islam and Muslims.

She said: “Many of us knew this would get worse, we finally have a leader, a world leader, in the White House who publicly says ‘Islam hates us’, who fuels hate against Muslims, who thinks it is okay to speak about a faith and a whole community in a way that is dehumanising, vilifying and doesn’t understand – or at least makes us want to think he doesn’t understand – the consequences his words might have.”

Later in her speech, Ms Omar discussed the founding of CAIR, a Muslim civil rights activism group, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. At this point she used the phrase “some people did something”.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognised that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” she said.

“So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange and that I am trying to make myself look pleasant.

“You have to say that this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, and I am going to talk to them and ask them why. Because that is the right you have.”

According to The Los Angeles Daily News, hundreds of protesters outside the CAIR event were shouting anti-Islam slogans such as “Burn the Quran” and “Ilhan Omar go to hell”.

Other Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley have also expressed support for Ms Omar.

“The NY Post knows exactly what it’s doing – taking quotes out of context and evoking painful imagery to spread hate and endangering the life of Rep Omar. Shame on them, and shame on Rupert Murdoch,” Ms Tlaib said, referring to the owner of the US tabloid.

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