It was called the Passover Plot. In the Middle Ages, a story originated that Jews would routinely catch Christian children, kill them and use their blood to make matzoh - the unleavened bread eaten during the Passover holidays. That meme persisted as an effective prop to antisemitism up through the era of Nazi Germany.
Back in 2024, I delivered a commentary about the lies being circulated about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio - that they were eating pets. Such stories like the disgusting attack on Jews in the Middle Ages are routinely told to stir up hatred for particular groups.
Well, the story tellers are at it again - this time it is President Donald Trump demonizing Somali refugees in Minnesota in general and Representative Ilhan Omar in particular. Ms. Omar came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia at the age of 14.
Nurtured by a significant Somali community in the Twin Cities of Minnesota she absorbed American culture and the best of the American political system. Soon she was involved in local Democratic Farmer Labor party politics. In 2018, at the age of 36 she was elected to the House of Representatives making her the first Muslim woman to serve in Congress.
Right from the start her religion, ethnicity and political positions made her an obvious target for President Trump during his first term. In 2019 he lumped her together with three members of the left-wing so-called “squad” - Ayanna Pressley (of California), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (of New York), and Rashida Tlaib (of Michigan) - and urged them all to “go back” to where they came from even though all but Omar were born in the U.S. In his speech he claimed these elected women hate America and urged them to “leave” if they didn’t like it. I myself wish he would leave because his actions as President prove he cannot stand our Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights which protects freedom of speech, the press and the right to assemble in protest. Unfortunately for him, apartheid South Africa no longer exists so I doubt he would find a place anywhere in the world receptive to his racist and xenophobic attitudes.
In that same year (2019)an internal review was launched into Omar’s personal history initiated by a political appointee in the Trump administration. The goal was to find anything in her background that might be useful in perhaps revisiting her naturalization as well as delving into the rumor in right-wing circles that she had married her brother to allow him to stay in the U.S. The review was handled by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of ICE. HSI determined there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. No citizenship issues were identified, and no charges were brought during that period. (There were obviously still some self-respecting professionals in government agencies during Trump’s first term!)
[For details see a recent article in Washington Post]
So, let’s take the current version of the issue seriously and drill down on Trump’s accusations against the Somali community of Minnesota. In 2020, as the COVID pandemic was raging through the nation, Minnesota experienced a 17 percent increase in violent crime. It continued to increase during the next year. Since 2021, the trend for all violent crime has been downward but the experience of that crime wave had created a lingering concern. Localized instances of violence, some involving Somali gangs, have also contributed to a great concern about crime, even as statewide statistics demonstrate a steady decline in murder and other violent crimes. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the crime rate is back to pre-pandemic levels after spiking in 2020 and 2021.
[For details see https://www.thecentersquare.com/minnesota/article_4e9c4372-f029-4891-84e9-fae2004f1db9.html]
But just as the truth did not matter to Medieval antisemites spreading the false stories about blood and matzoh, neither does truth matter to the people who demonize Congresswoman Omar and by extension the entire Somali community in Minnesota.
And recently, the attacks on Ms. Omar as an individual have escalated. On October 12, the Department of Homeland Security conducted a search of her home in Washington, DC allegedly looking for evidence of criminal activity. Some media speculated they would try to build a case that there were “irregularities” on the paperwork her father filed for her naturalization as an American citizen when she was 17. Should they find such “irregularities” the next step from the administration would be an effort to void her naturalization.
[In a very interesting opinion column in the October 17 print edition of the New York Time “The President’s Latest Leap Toward the Abyss,” (p. A21) columnist Michelle Goldberg sees this as a first step toward expanded efforts to denaturalize (many) other opponents of the President’s policies. The article is available on line with a date of October 16, and a slightly different headline. I found it here.]
From the point of view of Trump and his enablers it doesn’t really matter that the case against the Congresswoman is bogus. The very act of pursuing her gins up hate and fear among some members of the public. The antisemitism of the Middle Ages and Nazi Germany and the anti-Haitian sentiments from 2024 are all of a piece - as is the conclusion that Somali criminals are “taking over” Minnesota. “Real Americans” [as in white Christians] have to hate these “other folks,” and protect our country from the “terrible” things they are doing and will do. All the versions have always been disgusting falsehoods, and we the people must reject them all out of hand.
[For a current view on how Representative Omar has handled and continues to handle these attacks, see
https://omar.house.gov/media/in-the-news/ilhan-omars-american-dream-strong-enough-these-times]
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
