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Muslim school board member: Battle of Iwo Jima 'set a record' for what 'human evil is capable of.' It's far from her only controversial statement.
Fairfax County Public Schools (left); Photo by Joe Rosenthal/Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images (right)

Muslim school board member: Battle of Iwo Jima 'set a record' for what 'human evil is capable of.' It's far from her only controversial statement.

A Fairfax County (Virginia) School Board member last week said World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima "set the record" for what "human evil is capable of" — and it was far from the only controversial statement Abrar Omeish has uttered.

What are the details?

Omeish — a 28-year-old member at large who is a Muslim — made her Iwo Jima statement at Thursday's board meeting, Fox News reported.

She said there's "a lot of history in February" and first mentioned the Day of Remembrance, which marks the infamous date — Feb. 19, 1942 — when progressive President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order resulting in over 100,000 Japanese-Americans being placed in prison camps.

Omeish said the Day of Remembrance is "something for us to certainly reflect on" and added that "the days when, you know, Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for really what, hate to say, human evil is capable of."

The famous photo of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima was taken on Feb. 23, 1945.

Here's a clip showing Omeish's statement:

Fox News said it's unclear why Omeish made her Iwo Jima remark, adding that she offered no explanation to the Washington Free Beacon: "There is no reason to warp what was said, and reading more into it merely reflects biases forced in by the listener."

What else has Omeish said?

Omeish is no stranger to controversial statements. According to Fox News, a Fairfax County parent last year said Omeish upset Jewish parents by referring to Israel as an apartheid state.

"This caused huge outrage among over 250,000 Jewish Americans here in northern Virginia, and it sparked outrage across all political lines, and there were calls for her to apologize," parent Gary Aiken told "Fox & Friends First," the cable network said. "She offered no apology. She doubled down on it."

In addition, Omeish in June 2021 delivered a keynote address to graduates of Justice High School in Falls Church in which she said they were entering a world full of "racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, [and] white supremacy."

At one point — speaking to students apparently in Arabic — Omeish uttered the word "jihad" after she had urged them in English to "be reminded of the details of your struggle." In Arabic, "jihad" means "struggle" but also has been tied closely to radical Islam.

Anything else?

Readers of TheBlaze may recall that Fairfax County's public schools have been in the news a fair bit for everything from school training materials stating parental consent isn't required for students to change their names and genders on official records to video showing a middle school boy being strangled on a school bus in January.

In 2021, an Asian-American parent addressing the Fairfax County school board about "anti-racism" propaganda was cut off and told to "go to your seat."

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