MINNESOTA – Ilhan Omar made history on Tuesday by getting sworn in into the Minnesota House of Representatives, becoming the first female Muslim and Somali-American legislator.

“The Muslim community needs a win,” Asad Zaman, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, told Voice of America on Wednesday, January 4.

“This entire election cycle has been dominated by negativity towards immigrants and Muslims.”

Omar, who serves in the House District 60B in Minnesota, held a big copy of the holy Qur’an during her swearing-in ceremony, becoming the second person to do so after Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim U.S. congressman and contender for DNC chairmanship.

“I think it says a lot about the ethos of America,” Zaman told VOA, “that [constituents] can embrace a Somali-American, hijab-clad Muslim woman as their representative, as the most qualified person to speak for them in the state capitol.”

The swearing in ceremony was attended by dozens of supporters who filled the Minnesota State Capitol on the opening day of the new legislative session.

“There are many countries that have had women as heads of state, especially Muslim majority countries who’ve had” them, Nausheena Hussain, from the Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood of Empowerment, explained to a crowd of Omar supporters gathered at the state capitol building.

“So, we may not have shattered that glass ceiling in electing a president or head of state in our country, but for me, and the thousands of Muslim women, and women of color, Ilhan Omar is that ceiling that’s been shattered for us.”

The 33-year-old Omar was born in Somalia before she fled to the US to escape civil war.

She stayed for four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before ultimately moving to the Somali-American neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, where she has lived for nearly two decades and is currently director of policy initiatives at Women Organizing Women.