First this to consider: We should be paying all kinds of attention to Omar’s words and actions. She is principled and outspoken against all types of human rights abuses, having criticized Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen, spoken out against Chinese repression of the Uighur population, stood with the Sudanese people in their uprising, opposed American intervention in Venezuela, grilled Elliott Abrams about his atrocious human rights record, and more. She is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, and has already introduced the Protect Against Unlawful Lobbying Act of 2019, and the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2019. Most recently, she cosponsored a bicameral bill to end Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. And she only began her job in January.

Which American politician publicly referred to the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks as “those folks who committed this act,” seemingly downplaying its horrors? Was it Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar? No. Try George W Bush.

Or how about this. Who said that “the Stephen Miller approach to immigration has no viability”, adding that “Mr Miller is well known…for having views that are outside the mainstream,” suggesting Miller is in reality a political extremist who doesn’t belong in government? Was it Ilhan Omar? Wrong again. It was the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

And here is Trump addressing Jewish supporters in America saying "your prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu," assumes that Jewish Americans carry a dual loyalty to both Israel and the United States. This has been attributed to Ilhan Omar.

Over and over again, Ilhan Omar’s detractors misrepresent her words and intentions, accusing her of saying things she didn’t say or condemning her for things that have been said before, even by Republicans themselves.

But the attacks continue. That’s why you could be forgiven for thinking that Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, has said these – or even much worse – things. By now, she is accused so often of various speech and thought crimes that she almost seems like a figure in the Two Minutes H**e, the daily ritual used to whip party members into a frenzy in George Orwell’s novel 1984. In Orwell’s dystopia, the enemy of the people was the very Jewish-sounding Emmanuel Goldstein. If you believe some pundits, today’s enemy of the people is the very Muslim-looking Ilhan Omar.

And here is the BIG ONE: The latest manufactured outrage derives from a speech Omar gave last month to the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As the Washington Post noted, Omar’s 23 March speech was broadcast live (including on Fox News Online), but became controversial only days ago. In one phrase of her 20-minute talk, which was focused on Muslim Americans and civil rights, Omar says “some people did something” when referring to the September 11 attacks. (George W. said “those folks who committed this act.”) It’s abundantly clear by the context of the talk that Omar was saying that the actions of a few have distressingly enabled the threat to the civil rights of so many. To allege that Omar was minimizing the horrors of September 11 is to deliberately misconstrue the point of her comments. For those Christians and others who bemoan cherry-picked verses out of context, you should be sympathetic.