A Republican's deleted 9/11 tweet about Ilhan Omar slammed as 'Islamophobic' by Muslim group

Republican representative for North Carolina, Greg Murphy, is at the centre of criticism after he directed a now-deleted tweet about the 11 September 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks at Democratic Rep Ilhan Omar, who had sent condolences over the death of a Capitol Police officer following a fatal ramming and knifing on Friday.

"Heartbroken to learn another CP was killed while protecting the Capitol. My thoughts and prayers go out to the officer’s family and the entire Capitol Police force. The death toll would have been worse if the assailant had an AR-15 instead of a knife," Rep. Omar tweeted.

In the now-deleted tweet, Rep. Murphy wrote: "Would have been worse @Ilhan if they had been flying planes into the buildings also."

The tweet was swiftly condemned. North Carolina state Senator Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, tweeted: "You just invoked Sept. 11 to attack a Muslim member of Congress.

"I knew you a little when you were in the state legislature. This is well beneath you."

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"It doesn't matter how strongly you disagree with her on policy, you should represent our state better than this, @RepGregMurphy."

Ilhan Omar has been the target of Islamophobia and conspiracy theories in the past.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement condemning the Republican representative's comment.

"CAIR strongly condemns Representative Murphy for invoking the September 11th terror attacks while insulting a member of Congress who is Muslim," it said in a statement.

"It is disrespectful to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, to their families and to the countless Muslim and other minority hate crime victims who were targeted in the wake of 9/11. His bigoted comments only serve to perpetuate the climate of hate that we are witnessing nationwide."

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