By Umar Farooq
WASHINGTON (AA) – A New York man was charged with threatening to assault and kill Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, according to multiple reports.
Patrick Carlineo, a man from Addison, New York placed a threat to kill Omar because of her Muslim faith in a phone call to one of Omar’s staff member, CNN News reported on Saturday.
“Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she's a [obscenity] terrorist. I'll put a bullet in her [obscenity] skull,” Carlineo was reported to have said in the call.
“If our forefathers were still alive, they'd put a bullet in her head,” Carlineo initially claimed he had said.
He afterward told authorities he was unsure whether he did, according to CNN.
Omar, a Democratic congresswoman representing Minnesota's 5th district, is one of the first two Muslim lawmakers to be elected into U.S. Congress.
She has received multiple threats to her life and safety, a part of the ongoing criticisms and attacks she has faced since she made comments criticizing Israel, which some saw as “anti-Semitic “.
Carlineo had made an initial appearance before a judge on Friday, and is currently being held until a hearing next Wednesday, according to the Elmira Star Gazette, a New York newspaper.
“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country, ” Omar said at a progressive town hall meeting earlier this month, referring to Israel.
The remarks received widespread and bipartisan backlash, with some in Congress labeling them as anti-Semitic.
Omar apologized for similar comments made before, but this time she doubled down, saying she has “not mischaracterized our relationship with Israel. I have questioned it, and that has been clear from my end.
Earlier in the week, the news website The Blast reported that a bomb threat was made at a hotel Omar was scheduled to speak at for a banquet for Muslim Americans in Los Angeles.
