Linda Sarsour was co-chair of the Women’s March, even though she was not one of the founders.
Sarsour and two other “women of color” who would become the faces of the march were selected by the white female founder Bob Bland:
The idea started with women on Facebook. On the night of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in November, a grandmother in Hawaii named Teresa Shook went online and called for women to storm the capital on Inauguration weekend.“At the same time, 5,000 miles away, I was doing the same thing,” explains Bob Bland, a female manufacturing entrepreneur in New York City. “Within an hour we’d found each other, merged our events, and we were off to the races.” By the next morning, thousands of people from across the U.S. had signed up to join what could become the Women’s March on Washington.Bland quickly realized that in order to transform the march from an angry Facebook group into a progressive coalition, she’d need help. She enlisted veteran organizers Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour as national co-chairs with the aim of wrangling one of the largest Inauguration demonstrations in -history—and making it one that brought together activists of all stripes.
Sarsour brought to the Women’s March an Islamist, anti-Israel flair which is so beloved by regressive leftists, as we explored in “Women’s March on Washington” devolves into racial identity politics fight:
The only one of the leaders of the March with whom I was previously familiar is Linda Sarsour, an Arab-American anti-Israel activist. She was an early supporter of Dream Defenders and shared a panel with Keith Ellison at an anti-Israel event at the Democratic National Convention last summer.Sarsour apparently thinks little Palestinian kids throwing rocks is an act of courage (as opposed to child abuse by the people who put them in harm’s way), since she tweeted such praise in 2015 ….
Sarsour is politically two-faced. When she interacts with “progressives,” particularly leftist Jews, she’s all about understanding and respect. When she around other crowds, such a the Louis Farrakan organized 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, she’s tried to tie Israel (i.e., the Jews) to the problems of blacks in America:
“The same people who justify the massacres of Palestinian people and call it collateral damage are the same people who justify the murder of black young men and women,” she told the 20th anniversary Million Man March on Washington, an event held on the National Mall for African American civil rights, organized by Louis Farrakhan in 2015.“The same people who want to deport millions of undocumented immigrants are the same people who hate Muslims and who want to take our right to worship freely in this country. That common enemy, sisters and brothers, is white supremacy,” Sarsour said. “Let’s call it what it is.”
There apparently was a deal reached that Sarsour wouldn’t try to hijack the Women’s March for the anti-Israel cause, which is a common anti-Israel tactic. Haaretz reports:
“Jews are some of my biggest supporters,” Sarsour told Haaretz in an interview. Sarsour, a born-and-bred Brooklynite whose parents are of Palestinian origin, directs the Arab American Association of New York, an advocacy and social services group, and is considered a rising star in city politics.She has for several years worked closely with groups on the far-left edge of the Jewish community, like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Because Sarsour is an outspoken critic of Israel and backs boycotts, divestment and sanctions, mainstream Jewish groups have long held her at arms’ length.But that is changing as mainstream players like Rabbi Sharon Brous of Los Angeles’ Ikar and the National Council of Jewish Women work with Sarsour on issues of shared concern, like the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants on January 21. NCJW was one of dozens of partner organizations and helped ensure substantial Jewish involvement.“She and I disagree vehemently on a lot of issues related to Israel-Palestine, and have engaged in a lot of really important and meaningful conversations about those disagreements,” Brous told Haaretz. “I’ve grown a lot from engaging with her and listening to her. And I don’t know that before we started meeting at Auburn that she had spent much time with people who hold my views. I have to believe that the more we’re in conversation, we’re growing and learning from one another.”Sarsour told Brous that the march would not be anti-Israel, and invited her to speak “because she wanted a Jewish voice and leader who was in deep relationship with Israel,” said the rabbi. “I was very touched by that.”
Sarsour, nonetheless, did work in a “pro-Palestinian” pitch into her speech at the Women’s March, to the delight of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (which is not a Jewish group despite its name):
That Sarsour controlled her anti-Israelism during her Women’s March speech does not mean she’s done trying to hijack other movements to turn them against Israel, as The Jerusalem Post reports:
Growing in her activist role, Sarsour has increasingly linked her Palestinian cause with struggles facing the wider Arab American community since September 11th, with the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement, and with the responsibility to protect undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ citizens, women and girls.“The same people who justify the massacres of Palestinian people and call it collateral damage are the same people who justify the murder of black young men and women,” she told the 20th anniversary Million Man March on Washington, an event held on the National Mall for African American civil rights, organized by Louis Farrakhan in 2015.“The same people who want to deport millions of undocumented immigrants are the same people who hate Muslims and who want to take our right to worship freely in this country. That common enemy, sisters and brothers, is white supremacy,” Sarsour said. “Let’s call it what it is.”Her political philosophy places all of these groups, with all of their unique challenges, within the same category of oppressed peoples – and the oppressors, the opposition, are large corporations, white Islamophobes and Zionists.Nothing in Sarsour’s record offers evidence that she respects Zionism as a cause, and on the contrary, she has repeatedly used the term Zionist as an epithet.She wrote in 2015 on Twitter that “Zionist trolls” were out to get her, and in 2012 that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
As Sarsour entered the national spotlight, so did an examination of her past statements about Sharia law. Heat Street reported,
Elle Magazine Gushes Over Women’s March Organizer, Forgets to Mention Her Support for Sharia Law:
There was a fierce backlash against criticism of Sarsour from left-wing organizations and “progressives,” using the hashtag #IStandWithLinda. The theme was that criticism of Sarsour is “Islamophobic,” as this tweet from SPLC reflects:
The controversy over Sarsour, however, reached new heights when it was discovered that she viciously attacked Ayaan Hirshi Ali, a childhood victim of Female Genital Mutiliation. Ali is hated by Islamists because of her break with Islam over her mutilation.
Sarsour tweeted that Ali, and also Brigitte Gabriel, shouldn’t even have vaginas — a particularly inappropriate comment given the genital mutilation of Ali. Even if Sarsour were not the Co-Chair of the Women’s March it would be a cruel tweet, but coming from someone who has become a feminist hero to liberals, it was particularly bad.
Sarsour deleted the tweet once it was discovered by Nurit Baytch, but a screenshot already had been archived:
The Twitter reaction has been widespread:
Sarsour is blocking even reporters:
It’s hard to know how much or whether Sarsour’s support for Sharia and attack on Ayaan Hirsi Ali will damage Sarsour’s standing with liberal feminists. I doubt it will hurt much — by staying silent on the plight of women in Muslim countries and the gross abuse by groups like ISIS, the Western liberal feminists have proven that they have a blind eye for anything that does not support their left-wing world view.
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