Controversial member of woke Virginia school board slams Battle of Iwo Jima as ‘evil’

A member of the same Virginia school board who was criticized for withholding information about student scholarships has drawn attention by saying that the Battle of Iwo Jima, a great victory for the United States against Japan in World War II, was ‘evil’ and should not have happened.

The comments were made Thursday by Fairfax County board member Abrar Omeish, 28, in reference to Remembrance Day, a day of commemoration of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The holiday occurs on the same calendar day as the first American landings on the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

Lasting for more than a month, from February 19 to March 26, 1945, the battle for the island of Iwo Jima is one of the most famous in Marine Corps history. Nearly 7,000 US Marines from the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were killed trying to wrest control of the island from the Imperial Japanese Army.

The comments, already inciting outrage, are not the first time the 28-year-old board member has come under scrutiny. Elected to the post in 2019 at just 24 years old, the Muslim official also has a history of anti-Israel rhetoric and has been outspoken that the district’s admissions policy is anti-Asian biased.

His father is also a board member of a Fairfax mosque where three of the 9/11 hijackers had prayed before carrying out the heinous attacks.

Scroll down for the video:

Lasting for more than a month, from February 19 to March 26, 1945, the battle for the island of Iwo Jima is one of the most famous in Marine Corps history. Nearly 7,000 US Marines were killed during the weeks-long bloody battle that has been commemorated in several movies and films, as well as in this iconic photograph.

“Just a few days ago it was Japanese Remembrance Day,” Omeish said Thursday, during a discussion with other board members.

“Something for us to certainly reflect on…the days when, you know, Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for what, I hate to say, human evil is capable of.”

The comments drew almost instant backlash, largely due to the fact that the district has already been on many radar screens due to a host of other controversies, including its decision to delay notifying students that they had received National Achievement Awards. Merit.

Having withheld the awards as part of a progressive campaign designed not to hurt the feelings of students who didn’t get a scholarship, in some cases for up to two years, the district now faces the wrath of parents and is the subject of an investigation. by the State Attorney General’s Office.

Omeish is also the daughter of Esam Omeish, 55, 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.

The mosque previously employed a man suspected of working with al-Qaueda. That man, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by a US government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Asked to explain her comments amid the backlash, Omeish, the youngest Muslim woman to serve Virginia as an elected official, appeared to shy away from her characterization of the battle as an example of human wickedness.

Notably, three future 9/11 hijackers separately attended al-Awlaki’s Fairfax sermons in the 1990s and early 2001 before carrying out the terrorist attacks.

Despite hiring al-Awlaki himself, Omeish’s father was appointed to serve on the Virginia Immigration Commission in 2016 by state Sen. Tim Kaine, but resigned after video from a 2020 rally showed him calling for support. for the “path of jihad” as a solution. to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Speaking Thursday, Esam’s daughter, the youngest Muslim woman in Virginia to hold elected office, offered an equally crass characterization of one of the most famous World War II engagements.

Footage of the board member’s remarks has since circulated on social media, with one clip shared by an outraged parent drawing more than 60,000 views.

When asked to explain her comments amid backlash from the Washington Free Beacon, Omeish appeared to backtrack on that reasoning which saw her denounce the Battle of Iwo Jima, often shortened to simply Iwo Jima, as an example of the human evil.

Omeish is also the daughter of Esam Omeish, 55, the prominent Chief of General Surgery at Inova Alexandria Hospital. Essam is also a board member of a Fairfax mosque that hosted three of the 19 9/11 hijackers.

The Omeish Mosque previously employed Anwar al-Awlaki, a man suspected of working with al-Qaueda. al-Awlaki was killed by a US government drone strike, ordered by President Barack Obama, in Yemen in 2011

“There is no reason to distort what was said and further reading simply reflects the biases forced by the listener,” Omeish told the conservative news outlet in an emailed statement over the weekend.

He added that he made the comment because the battle “fell on the same day” as the 1942 executive order issued by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt to jail Japanese Americans, noting that the order remained in effect “even after Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, three years later.

Omeish, however, offered no explanation as to why he characterized Iwo Jima as ‘evil’, downplaying the battle saying it ‘unfortunately happened’.

The weeks-long, bloody battle left an estimated 7,000 Americans dead and more than 20,000 wounded, and has been commemorated in movies and films such as Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima.

While costly, the victory proved crucial in capturing a strategic operating base for the escort bombers that attacked mainland Japan late in the war.

It also spawned one of the most iconic photographs of the entire conflict, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, showing six United States Marines raising the US flag atop Mount Suribachi during fighting, during the final stages of the Pacific War.

No notable US veterans association has issued a comment on Omeish’s comments, which are not the first to spark controversy.

Late last year, when the school district faced a federal class action lawsuit for violating the rights of disabled students, private text messages revealed that Omeish also acknowledged anti-Asian bias in the admissions process for Science High School. and District Thomas Jefferson Technology (pictured)

In May 2021, a series of anti-Israel social media posts by the school board member came to light, in which he called Israel an “apartheid” state that “kills Palestinians.”

Then, late last year, when the school district faced a federal class action lawsuit for violating the rights of disabled students, Private text messages revealed that Omeish also acknowledged an anti-Asian bias in the admissions process for

“I mean there has been underlying anti-Asian sentiment to some of this, I hate to say it lol,” Omeish texted a board member in the fall of 2020. “They get discriminated against in this process as well.”

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Fairfax County School District for comment.