When Slate writer Aiman Ismail came into the studio to talk to me, he kept saying the same thing.

Mary, why am I so sad today?

The sucks.

We'd gotten together to talk about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the name calling, the threatening video

that came out last week.

But Aiman can't talk about representative Omar without talking about himself.

So we talked about that, too.

Aiman's Muslim, Grip in Jersey.

He's got these stories, like how in 9-11, he remembers neighborhood kids coming to his Islamic school,

and throwing stones at it.

Aiman started going to a public school after that.

There was that time Aiman landed in court on a trespassing charge, and the judge threatened to deport him.

Even though Aiman's an American citizen.

So when Ilhan Omar says that Muslims shouldn't be complicit in the demonization of our community,

that resonates with me.

That makes me feel like, no, we do have a place here.

Here's this politician for once advocating for me that never happens as a Muslim American.

Over the last week, Aiman's watch says this 20-minute speech representative Omar gave

has been reworked, reshaped into a meme and a retweet, spread first by a member of Congress,

and then by the New York Post, and then by the President.

Here was founded after 9-11, because they recognized that some people did something.

I mean that speech was around for three weeks, but even I had it tuned in.

...