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'Something for us to reflect on': Controversial Virginia school board member Abrar Omeish calls Battle of Iwo Jima 'evil'

The battle of Iwo Jima lasted for more than a month from February 19 to March 26 of 1945, it was one of the most intense battles for the Marine Corps

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA: A member of a Virginia school board has made outrageous comments which raised the eyebrows of several Americans in the country. Fairfax County board member Abrar Omeish, 28, stated that the Battle of Iwo Jima which is considered a major US victory against Imperial Japan in World War II was "evil" and should have never taken place. In fact, this happens to be the same school board that was previously accused of withholding information about students' scholarships.

The abhorrent comments were made by Omeish on Thursday, February 23, in reference to the Day of Remembrance, a day of observance for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The holiday occurs on the same calendar day as the first US landings on the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

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What is the Battle of Iwo Jima?

The battle of Iwo Jima lasted for more than a month from February 19 to March 26 of 1945. It is one of the most famous and intense battles for the Marine Corps and the United States Navy. Nearly 7,000 US Marines from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions died trying to wrest control of the island from Japan's Imperial Army.

Abrar Omeish and her family

This is not the first time however that Omeish has come under fire for her controversial statements. At just 24 years of age, she was elected to office in 2019. The Muslim official is quite infamous for anti-semitic comments and has candidly said that the district's admissions policy has an anti-Asian bias. Omeish's father is also a member of the Board of Directors of a Fairfax mosque where three of the 9/11 hijackers had prayed before carrying out the harrowing attack.

"Just a few days ago was Japanese Day of Remembrance," Omeish said Thursday according to Daily Mail. "Something for us to certainly reflect on… the days when, you know, Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for really what, I hate to say, human evil is capable of." 

The comment drew instant criticism mainly due to the fact that the district has been on many radars already due to various controversies, including its decision to delay notifying students they had received National Merit Awards. 

Omeish is also the daughter of 55-year-old Esam Omeish, the chief of General Surgery at Inova Alexandria Hospital, and former President of the Muslim American Society (MAS). Essam is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque, also in Fairfax.

A man, suspected of collaborating with Al Qaeda, was previously employed by the mosque. The suspect,  Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by a US government drone strike, ordered by President Barack Obama, in 2011. Three future September 11 attacks hijackers separately attended al-Awlaki's sermons in Fairfax in the 1990s and early 2001 before carrying out the terror attacks.

Omeish's father was appointed to serve on the Virginia Commission on Immigration in 2016 by State Senator Tim Kaine despite hiring al-Awlaki personally. He had to resign later after a video from a 2020 rally showed him calling for "jihad way" as a solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

What did Abrar Omeish say?

When asked to explain her comments amid the backlash by the Washington Free Beacon, Omeish said "There is no reason to warp what was said and reading more into it merely reflects biases forced in by the listener" in an emailed statement over the weekend. She added that she made the remark because the battle "fell on the same day" as the 1942 executive order issued by then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt to incarcerate Japanese Americans. She also noted that the order remained in effect "even after Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, three years later."

Although Omeish did not give any proper reason why she made such a claim and brushed off the battle by saying it "unfortunately happened."