A controversial Virginia school-board member is taking heat for saying the Battle of Iwo Jima, a serious US victory during World War II, “unfortunately happened” — and set a record for “human evil.”
Abrar Omeish made the stunning statements during a Thursday meeting of the Fairfax County School Board while discussing the US’s recent Japanese Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the 1942 internment of Japanese-Americans by the US.
“Something for us to definitely reflect on as we learn our history and give it some thought,” she said of the annual event. “The times when, you understand, Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for really, what I hate to say, human evil is able to.”
Omeish also invoked Holocaust Remembrance Day, which might be observed in April to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews and other victims killed by the Nazis.
A video clip of her remarks was posted on Twitter by the Fairfax County Parents Association, which referred to them as a “(mis?)statement.
“Unsure what Ms. Omeish was saying here, is she condemning the brave US Marines that invaded Iwo Jima? Perhaps she meant to say something else,” the group said.
Some critics on Twitter called for her to be removed.
The five-week Battle of Iwo Jima took place in 1945 between the Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan for control of airfields on the tiny island about 660 miles south of Tokyo.
In what’s widely considered the bloodiest fighting of World War II, about 7,000 Marines died and 20,000 were wounded while killing all but 216 of the 18,000 Japanese soldiers stationed there.
The eventual US victory on the island was immortalized in a photograph that shows six Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi near the beginning of the carnage.
Controversy is nothing latest to the Fairfax school district.
It’s one in every of three within the state where officials delayed announcing the winners of National Merit awards, with one parent alleging she was told it was done because administrators didn’t wish to “hurt” the emotions of other students.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has condemned the situation, and state Attorney General Jason Miyares launched a civil-rights investigation of the district last month.
Last yr, Omeish — who boasts of being the youngest woman elected to public office in Virginia — also sparked outrage by voting against a resolution for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“As a nation, we remember a jarring event, little question, but we decide to forget — as this resolution does — the fear, the ostracization and the collective blame felt by Arab-Americans, American Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus and all brown or other individuals which have been mistaken for Muslims since that day over the past twenty years,” she said on the time. “Why are we forgetting the experience of those families? Their traumas?”
Omeish’s father, Dr. Esam Omeish, is a founding board member and former vice chairman of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Vir., which was formerly led by Anwar Al-Awlaki, who later became a high-profile radical and was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were also revealed to have prayed on the mosque before committing their heinous deeds, with the federal 11th of September Commission concluding it “may not have been coincidental.”
Abrar Omeish’s remarks were first reported Friday by the Washington Free Beacon, which said she responded to an inquiry with an emailed statement that didn’t explain her remarks concerning the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“There isn’t a reason to warp what was said and reading more into it merely reflects biases forced in by the listener,” she reportedly said.
In an email to The Post, Abrar Omeish noted that the chief order for the internment of Japanese-Americans was dated Feb. 19, 1942, three years to the day before the beginning of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
She also shared what she said were the words of a “well-known conservative constituent” who “captured my sentiment effectively.”
“The juxtaposition of those two events, the primary the start of one of the glorious battles in US history, and the second, one in every of the worst acts of evil in US history, is indeed an irony value contemplating as we explore the glories and sins of US history,” that statement said.
Abrar Omeish added, “Indeed, I even have only the utmost respect and admiration for all those that sacrifice their lives and livelihoods in service of others on daily basis.”
