--- 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: 2026-10-07T06:56:09.376Z 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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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fc4b38a0-1d14-40b1-9d21-b5faf3d5d8bb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Somali-American Lawmaker Says She Was Called "ISIS" [Watch (HLS stream): Somali-American Lawmaker Says She Was Called "ISIS"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/O0BlsqvL.m3u8) (0:58)  _Published 2016-12-08. Ilhan Omar says a cab driver in Washington, D.C. called her "ISIS" and harassed her._ by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 8, 2016 4:48 PM UTC 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":"2026-10-07T06:56:09.376Z","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’"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Somali-American Lawmaker Says She Was Called \"ISIS\"","description":"Ilhan Omar says a cab driver in Washington, D.C. called her \"ISIS\" and harassed her.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/O0BlsqvL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-12-08T20:46:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/O0BlsqvL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/","duration":"PT58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4595178/ilhan-omar-somali-american-lawmaker-harassed-muslim/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```