Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are first American Muslim women elected to Congress

In a momentous moment for American Muslims, voters elected two women –Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar – to U.S. Congress as Democrats took the House of Representatives in the intensely fought 2018 midterm polls.

The victories of Tlaib, daughter of Palestinian immigrants and Omar, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, also represent a moment of celebration for women, immigrants and diversity amidst unprecedented rhetoric against immigration since 2016 election.

Democrats and Republicans have made immigration a key political issue since Donald Trump’s election to the White House, which saw a series of unprecedented executive orders clamping down on illegal immigrants and enforcing a ban on immigration from several Muslim majority countries

But the victories of two Muslim women also mark American urban voters’ preference for diversity and inclusiveness as opposed to clamoring voices of exclusivist ideologies, particularly among some Conservative and nationalist groups and parts of the media.

While Tlaib made it to the U.S. House of Representative unopposed from Michigan’s 13^th District, Ilham fills the Democratic seat in Minnesota vacated by Congressman Keith Ellison. Ellison was the first American Muslim elected to Congress and left his seat to run for attorney general of the state.

Both were state legislators before their rise to U.S. Congress.

Tlaib, 42, was elected in 2008 as the first Muslim woman in the Michigan legislature. The Detroit-born politician has been hailed by American Muslims and Palestinian-Americans as a great political stride.  She has two children.

Omar came to prominence in 2016 when she became the first Somali-American Muslim to ever become a lawmaker in Minnesota’s House of Representatives. In Tuesday’s vote, Omar defeated Republican Jennifer Zielinski to realize the dream of political empowerment.