--- title: Ilhan Omar, First Somali-American Lawmaker, Harassed for Being Muslim description: Less than a month after she won her Minnesota statehouse race, Ilhan Omar said she was harassed for being Muslim canonical: https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-08T16:48:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:29:54.835Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Country’s First Somali-American Lawmaker Says a Cab Driver Called Her ‘ISIS’ og:description: She was in Washington, D.C. for policy training og:url: https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta27c25a657ee756c/6988b24f428a9e288dcd53cd/ilhan-omar-somali-lawmaker-washington-dc-harassed-muslim.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-ELECTION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Country’s First Somali-American Lawmaker Says a Cab Driver Called Her ‘ISIS’ twitter:description: She was in Washington, D.C. for policy training twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta27c25a657ee756c/6988b24f428a9e288dcd53cd/ilhan-omar-somali-lawmaker-washington-dc-harassed-muslim.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Country’s First Somali-American Lawmaker Says a Cab Driver Called Her ‘ISIS’ > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 8, 2016 4:48 PM UTC  Ilhan Omar gives an acceptance speech on election night, Nov. 8, 2016 in Minneapolis. Omar, a refugee from Somalia, is the first Somali-American Muslim woman to hold public office. Ilhan Omar gives an acceptance speech on election night, Nov. 8, 2016 in Minneapolis. Omar, a refugee from Somalia, is the first Somali-American Muslim woman to hold public office. STEPHEN MATUREN—AFP/Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 8, 2016 4:48 PM UTC Amid the divisive political climate of 2016, Ilhan Omar’s election as the nation’s [first Somali-American lawmaker](http://time.com/4564296/ilhan-omar-first-somali-legislator/) gave many people hope. But less than a month after she won her Minnesota statehouse race, Omar said she was harassed for being Muslim. Omar was visiting Washington D.C. for policy training at the White House this week, and while riding in a taxi back to her hotel on Tuesday, she was subjected to “the most hateful, derogatory, islamophobic, sexist taunts and threats” she had ever experienced, the lawmaker wrote in a [post on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/ilhan.omar.3/posts/10211090213388570). “The cab driver called me ISIS and threatened to remove my hijab,” she wrote. “I wasn’t really sure how this encounter would end as I attempted to rush out of his cab and retrieve my belongs.” Omar told commenters on her Facebook post that she had not yet reported the incident because she didn’t “feel safe enough to say anything at the moment” since the cab driver knew where she was staying. She wrote she planned to report the event once she returns to [Minneapolis.](http://www.startribune.com/ilhan-omar-will-be-nation-s-first-somali-american-legislator/400478961/) She wrote that she was “still shaken” by the encounter and had a hard time wrapping her head around how “bold” people are becoming in attacking Muslims. Hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities [surged last year](http://time.com/4569996/hate-crimes-muslims-2015-fbi/?iid=sr-link2), and in the month since the Nov. 8 election, the Southern Poverty Law Center has counted [hundreds of acts](http://time.com/4573130/racist-incidents-hate-crimes-us/?iid=sr-link4) of hateful intimidation and harassment across the country. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/"},"headline":"The Country’s First Somali-American Lawmaker Says a Cab Driver Called Her ‘ISIS’","datePublished":"2016-12-08T16:48:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:29:54.835Z","description":"She was in Washington, D.C. for policy training","url":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/","keywords":["Minnesota","Muslim","Muslims"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta27c25a657ee756c/6988b24f428a9e288dcd53cd/ilhan-omar-somali-lawmaker-washington-dc-harassed-muslim.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta27c25a657ee756c/6988b24f428a9e288dcd53cd/ilhan-omar-somali-lawmaker-washington-dc-harassed-muslim.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-ELECTION","caption":"US-VOTE-ELECTION","creditText":"STEPHEN MATUREN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/minnesota/","name":"Minnesota"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/","name":"The Country’s First Somali-American Lawmaker Says a Cab Driver Called Her ‘ISIS’"}}]}] ```