Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) history of egregious antisemitic remarks and dismissal of the Islamist 9-11 attacks as "some people who did something" pale in comparison to her most recent comment which, in a subtle but horrific manner, threatens all of Judeo-Christian Western society.
Omar retweeted a New York Times op-ed by Eric V. Copage, which claimed that "Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was most likely a Palestinian man with dark skin."
"As I grew older, I learned that the fair-skinned, blue-eyed depiction of Jesus has for centuries adorned stained glass windows and altars in churches throughout the United States and Europe," Copage, who is Black, wrote. "But Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was most likely a Palestinian man with dark skin."
Although the article was about the historical accuracy of Jesus' depicted ethnicity (particularly in relation to Church art), white versus person-of-color, this one reference to Jesus' national allegiance became the focus of media debate. At face value, the claim that Jesus was a Palestinian is anachronistic. Palestinian, as a national identity, has never existed. And Jesus was, by all accounts, a Judean who worshipped the God of Israel.
The claim that Jesus was a person of color is not necessarily accurate. According to Christian tradition, Jesus was descended from the House of David who was the offspring of Ruth the Moabite. Moabites, as the descendants of the crimson Esau, were reportedly red-haired and light-skinned..
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, unpacked Omar's motives, explaining that they had even greater implications than a simple disagreement over Jesus' identity.
Dr. Kedar called this perception "re-engineered history," a technique he claims is inherent in Islam and the Arab world.
Read the details here.