| Saba Ahmed | |
| Birth Date: | January 11, 1985 |
| Birth Place: | Rawalpindi, Pakistan |
| Nationality: | Pakistani American |
| Citizenship: | Pakistan United States |
| Education: | Portland State University (BS) University of Portland (JD) |
| Occupation: | President of the Republican Muslim Coalition |
| Party: | Republican |
| Movement: | Conservatism |
Saba Ahmed (born January 11, 1985)[1] is a Pakistani-American political activist, lawyer, and engineer. She is the founder and president of the Republican Muslim Coalition,[2] former lawyer at the United States Patent and Trademark Office,[3] and former engineer at Intel. She has urged Muslim Americans to vote Republican.[4] She supports Donald Trump,[5] but has said she is "deeply hurt by [his] ignorant views of Islam."
She was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, moved to America when she was 12, and then grew up in Oregon.
She came to public attention as a friend of the family of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, convicted for his attempt to bomb a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, Oregon. Ahmed was interviewed by the press.[6] She posited that he may have been "framed."[7] [8]
In January 2011, she was in the local news because her family said she was missing, but she was actually safe in California.[9] At that time her family claimed she was diagnosed with a mental disorder, but Ahmed has denied that.[6] In 2011, she ran for U.S. Congress as a Democrat.[3] [6]
In 2014, she published an essay in The Guardian, explaining that she had become a Republican in 2014 because she believes her Islamic pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-business, pro-trade values are aligned with GOP.[2] [3] [4] In June 2014, at a panel hosted by The Heritage Foundation on the Benghazi attacks, activist Brigitte Gabriel taunted her after asking about their portrayal of all Muslims as bad.[10] [11] In 2015, she made headlines for wearing an American flag hijab on Fox News. She was discussing Trump's comment that he would consider shutting down certain radical mosques after a series of terrorist attacks in Paris. She invited Trump to go to a mosque.[3] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
| Oregon 1st Congressional District Special Democratic Primary Election, 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Democratic | Suzanne Bonamici | 49,721 | 65.18 | |
| Democratic | Brad Avakian | 16,963 | 22.24 | |
| Democratic | Brad Witt | 6,003 | 7.87 | |
| Democratic | Dan Strite | 1,212 | 1.59 | |
| Democratic | Dominic Hammon | 923 | 1.21 | |
| Democratic | Todd Lee Ritter | 651 | 0.85 | |
| Democratic | Write-ins | 469 | 0.61 | |
| Democratic | Saba Ahmed | 250 | 0.33 | |
| Democratic | Robert Lettin | 91 | 0.12 | |