Man who claimed Ilhan Omar married her brother says he 'fears for his life' after threats from lawmaker's friend
A Somali man, who claimed on record that congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her own brother, has reportedly said that he is in fear for his life. The man, identified as Abdihakim Osman, has claimed that a woman close to the lawmaker had posted a video on YouTube about him and had urged members of the Somali-American community to attack him, according to the Daily Mail.
Wheelchair-bound Osman, 40, had reportedly filed a complaint to Minneapolis police and had demanded the video on YouTube to be taken down. The man, however, claimed that his requests were met with silence from the video-streaming site until the outlet asked YouTube why the video was still running. The clip was eventually removed on March 10, and a note replaced it, saying: "This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying."
The now-removed clip showed a woman, identified as Malyun Ali, asking members of Omar’s Majeerteen clan: "What is wrong with you?" Ali, in Somali, wrote: "Why are you not protecting us from this nasty man who is composed only of a head and a stomach. You Majeerteen men…why don’t you defend us from this person…this fat ram who gets money taken from the taxes we pay."
Ali continued her verbal attack, saying Osman has a "big bell, small udder, pillar-like head" and mocked his disability, which was a result of contracting polio as a child.
"You Majeerteen men, we despise you," she added addressing her clan members. "Why don’t you stop this crippled dog?" Ali has not responded to a request for comment.
Last month, the 40-year-old had told the news outlet that Omar had married her own brother Ahmed Elmi to allow him to get student loans in the United States. The Minnesota congresswoman and Elmi both went to North Dakota University. Osman claimed that Elmi suddenly appeared in the Somali community in Minneapolis in the late 2000s and both Omar and her ex-husband Ahmed Hirsi had told him that Elmi was her brother. The 40-year-old alleged that no one knew about the congresswoman's marriage with Elmi until it was uncovered by press years later.
Osman now claims that he is living in fear after the video was posted. "I am very careful where I go. I have changed all my routines," he told the outlet. "I am sure they will do something and make it look random. I am very worried and I am very scared. But I want to make it clear — I’m pre-reporting so when it does happen people will know it is because of this video."
"They will retaliate either by setting me up for a crime or something or they will physically harm me," he said. "YouTube will have to bear the consequences if anything happens to me. I am a disabled man and she is threatening me. It has been shared thousands of times," he said before the video was removed.
The allegations of Omar marrying her brother have been hounding the congresswoman since her 2016 Minnesota state legislature bid, and she had come out in public denouncing the claims. Omar had released a statement that year, calling the claims "baseless rumors" that "are absolutely false and ridiculous."
The Democrat had then said that she married Hirsi, as per Muslim tradition in 2002. However, she never legally married him and their relationship ended in 2008. Omar then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, however, they separated in 2011.
"Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” she said at the time. She eventually reconciled with her first husband Hirsi and the couple legally married in 2018. The pair divorced a year later in 2019.