Extremist Virginia School Board Member To Retire, Citing Scrutiny Following Youngkin’s Election

Abrar Omeish, the most radical member of the most radical school board in Virginia, has decided not to run for reelection. Omeish cited the toll of investigations into the school system as the reason for her decision.

Omeish has a history of divisive comments and actions. She voted against a resolution honoring the victims of 9/11. Her father was the vice president of a mosque where several 9/11 terrorists attended and whose imam was Anwar Al-Awaki, a known Al Qaeda operative who was later killed by a drone in Yemen.

Omeish gave a controversial speech to graduates of a heavily-minority school, telling them they were entering a world of “capitalism” and “white supremacy,” encouraging them to “remember ‘jihad’,” reject objectivity, and decline to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Additionally, she recently called the battle of Iwo Jima, where American soldiers heroically fought an Axis power, “unfortunate” and “evil.”

Amidst allegations of racism and other issues at Fairfax schools, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares have launched numerous investigations, including a change to magnet school admissions that a court found was aimed at reducing the number of Asian students and a flyer that excluded white and Asian students from a tutoring opportunity.

Fairfax Now reported that Omeish will not run for reelection this year, stating that the investigations into the school system have been stifling.

This move could be a sign that Youngkin is having an impact on Northern Virginia’s school systems, which have become increasingly partisan and have defied an executive order requiring them to lift mask mandates. Fairfax County’s budget is largely dependent on property values that are maintained by people seeking good schools. However, Omeish criticized one well-performing school as being “lily-white.”

Omeish has used lawyers from the Islamist group CAIR, which her father is affiliated with, to sue police officers after they pepper-sprayed her for refusing to get out of her car or show them her license during a traffic stop. She claimed that the police targeted her because of her race, although dashcam footage showed that she had been speeding through a red light and that her appearance was not visible to the officer when he pulled her over.

Omeish’s father, Esam Omeish, ran for state delegate but lost after a video surfaced of him declaring that Islam must “become the dominant religion of the next century” and endorsing jihad. As the book Race to the Bottom reported, “Esam was also president of the Muslim American Society; a 2019 video from an MAS facility showed children being trained to sing, ‘We will chop off their heads… We will lead the army of Allah.”

Omeish, who lives with her father and has no children, was an at-large member of the school board with over a million constituents.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases