According to a flattering profile about her, Linda Sarsour of Brooklyn has "got her hands in everything" as director of the Arab American Association of New York, the Coordinator of Community Initiatives for the YWCA Brooklyn, a member of the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays, a Palestine activist, and an "activist for women and immigrants." On March 10, she was even honored as one of "Brooklyn's Extraordinary Women" by the borough's district attorney.
Whew. Being so busy, Sarsour surely must find it difficult to keep her facts straight. She's twice discussed me in recent interviews:
 Linda Sarsour, too busy to get her facts straight. |
"Rallying Arab America," June 2009: "I get excited when Daniel Pipes writes about me. He's my publicist. When someone says you have a 'powerbase' that's like you walk down the street and have a million man march behind you. People want to talk to me all the time after he wrote all that crazy shit about me."
"Arab Brooklynite Linda Sarsour Holds Her Own." March 16, 2010: "hatemongers like Daniel Pipes and Emerson Vermaat and others have tried to paint me as a Hamas Sympathizer and they have failed miserably. They actually have helped my career in so many ways. For them to think that I am so important of a person, so influential, that they tried to take me down, has actually made me just that - an important and influential person in the Arab and Muslim community nationally. I am frequently contacted by local, national and international media as an expert on Arab and Muslim issues or to gain the perspective of an Arab and Muslim - so THANK YOU Mr. Pipes!"
YOU'RE WELCOME, Ms Sarsour!
There's just one little problem with these two quotes. I hate to pop Sarsour's balloon, but until this blog I never wrote about her. Indeed, until today, I'd never even heard of her. So, whatever great things you have achieved, Linda, you did them on your own, without benefit of help from me.
Comments:
(1) Could it be that, in her haste, Sarsour confused me with PipeLineNews.org, a self-described "boutique news service" founded in 1999 that provides "vital information regarding national security matters, including the culture war, the rise of radical Islam and the 'stealth jihad'." Emerson Vermaat is on the PipeLineNews.org masthead and one of its articles both calls Sarsour a Hamas sympathizer and says she has "a power base in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge district."
(2) Sarsour ought to shower PipeLineNews.org, not me, with her affections.
(3) A normally literate person should be able to distinguish between PipeLineNews.org and Daniel Pipes.
(4) What's it about those who disagree with me that they imagine me doing and saying things that are provably false? (For many other examples, see here and here.) It may irritate me but it damages them. Time to stop, gang. Get your facts straight. (March 16, 2010)
Mar. 22, 2010 update: Emerson Vermaat states today: "I never accused Linda Sarsour of anything nor do I happen to know her."
Mar. 8, 2011 update: Sarsour has tweeted a stunningly crude and vicious attack on two anti-Islamist leaders: "Brigitte Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don't deserve to be women."
Dec. 15, 2011 update: Leave it to the Obama White House to honor Sarsour as a "champion of change."
Apr. 5, 2012 update: Looks like Sarsour is again too busy to keep her facts straight. This time: she published "My Hjiab is my hoodie" on CNN.com an affecting personal response to the murder of Shaima Alawadi, full of information about the note left beside her body with "Go Back to your country, you terrorist" and a lot of information about supposed anti-Muslim bias in the United States. Only Sarsour overlooked the fact that Alawadi's husband, Kassim Alhimidi, forged that note as a way from deflecting attention from himself as her murderer in an honor killing. June 23, 2014 update: Alhimidi was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Nonetheless, that embarrassing article by Sarsour remains up at CNN, without apology or modification, a stain on its and her reputations.
May 8, 2012 update: Sarsour tweeted in reference to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines 253 in 2009: "Underwear bomber was the #CIA all along. Why did I already know that?!"
Sep. 30, 2012 update: Sarsour has the audacity to present herself publicly on Instagram in what she styles a mermaid dress; almost as amusing are the gasps of appreciation she garners.
 Linda Sarsour models a fetching "mermaid" dress on Instagram, to acclaim. |
Oct. 31, 2012 update: The Brooklyn philosopher opines on Jewish nationalism "Nothing is creepier than Zionism."
Nov. 1, 2012 update: The Investigative Project on Terrorism has collected lots of useful and interesting information about Sarsour at "More Radicalism from Another White House Guest." Learn about her sophisticated view of Zionism, visits to the White House, the NYPD conspiracy against Malcolm X, and much more of delight.
Jan. 19, 2014 update: Lovely Linda posted the picture below from a Network of Arab-American Professionals promotional; feel free to swoon at what she modestly calls her "striking good looks."
 Linda Sarsour boasts of her "striking good looks." |
Feb. 2, 2014 update: Sarsour's vanity bursts out again, this time to boast on Twitter "I am beautiful."
Feb. 4, 2014 update: "Without my hijab, I don't really have an identity on the outside." So says Sarsour in a video for "World Hijab Day."
 Linda Sarsour wants to be identified by her hijab. |
May 13, 2014 update: Sarsour adds this tasteless comment today to a picture of herself and journalist Errol Louis: "Two amazing people in one picture - yes, and I am one of them."
 Errol Louis (l) and Linda Sarsour (r). |
Aug. 1, 2014 update: Sarsour has now verbally attacked a pro-Israel college student, Chloë Valdary. (Disclosure: I spoke for Valdary at the University of New Orleans 1½ years ago.)
Valdary (@Cvaldary on Twitter) on July 31 laid into an antisemitic group: "Please understand Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), that this year, we are coming for you."
Sarsour (@lsarsour on Twitter) replied: "This girl forgot where she came from. Publicly threatening @SJPNational. Bring it on."
Valdary: "Do we have an anti-zionist racist on our hands? SHOCK @lsarsour careful your klansman mask is showing."
Sarsour: "We all know exactly who you are and who pulls your strings and fills your pockets. Run along."
Valdary told Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon:
It is unfortunate that this racist language is being used by Israel's enemies, but I cannot say I am surprised. This is the extrapolation of the anti-Zionist's argument to its logical conclusion. Anyone who denies the Jews the right to self-determination in their native land will obviously disparage other ethnic groups who are allied with them. What disturbs me more, however, is that Sarsour is a self-described "civil rights activist" and a "Champion of Change," according to the White House.
 Chloë Valdary, demonstrating for Israel. |
Aug. 29, 2014 update: How charming. Sarsour entered a CAIR raffle, won a Koran, and now proclaims her good fortune to the world. We had no doubt that she supported CAIR, the illegitimate step-child of Hamas and therefore of the Muslim Brotherhood, but now we have proof.
 Sarsour's proud tweet thanking CAIR. |
Sep. 8, 2014 update: In another self-congratulatory statement, Sarsour tweeted about "Such a beautiful photo taken of" her. Has she no shame?
Sep. 9, 2014 update: Sarsour squealed "hate crime" when a street person in Brooklyn accosted her on Sep. 3, winning national attention for her plight and the alleged problem of anti-Muslim bias. For example, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, wrote her a tweet: "New Yorkers stand with you, @lsarsour. Our city will never condone such glaring acts of bigotry and intolerance."
But Christine Sisto writes today at "Hate Crime? Not So, Says Brooklyn Community. A hate crime making national headlines is debunked by the locals" that Sarsour has transformed the local drunk into a bigot for her own purposes. Brian Doherty, a retired police officer, speculates that she hopes to succeed Bay Ridge's term-limited councilman in 2016: "She's attempting to make it political because she has her eye on [Vincent] Gentile's seat."
Nov. 16, 2014 update: Sarour today ridiculed Saudi women because they complain about not being able to drive: "10 weeks of PAID maternity leave in Saudi Arabia. Yes PAID. And ur worrying about women driving. Puts us to shame." Comment: (1) I wonder which Sarsour herself would rather give up, 10 weeks of paid maternity leave or her driver's license? (2) To ask that question is to answer it. (3) Sarsour reveals herself here as an apologist for a weird practice by a despicable regime. (4) Maybe Sarsour should move to Saudi Arabia to take advantage of the great benefits women enjoy there?
 Sarsour's tweet. |
Feb. 8, 2015 update: Sarsour just can't get enough of her alleged beauty. Her remarks (ignorant typo left as is) on this Instagram picture: "Blue is a power color. Maybe your born with it, Maybe it's Maybelline, I praise the lord that I am born with it. #media #womenarebetterateverything #women." Oh, and what to make of the infantile feminism, "women are better at everything"?
 Sarsour again admires her own image. |
Feb. 19, 2015 update: Sarsour announced this news on The Rachel Maddow Show:
We [Muslims] come to the US [and find] 22 states with anti-Sharia bills trying to ban us from practicing our faith, mosque oppositions, we're fighting, you know, zoning boards across the country, our kids are hearing this rhetoric, we have people, mosques being vandalized, kids being executed, Islamophobia, leaders on national television saying that, you know, holy wars and these people want to take over America.
It's quite a litany of errors and exaggerations: those anti-Sharia bills she mentions neither stop Muslims from practicing their faiths nor have they been passed in 22 states. But most notable are the words in bold – "kids being executed." Sarsour seems to be stating that the U.S. government is systematically executing young Muslims. Do tell us more, Linda.
Apr. 28 2015 update: An anti-Pamela Geller account at tumblr has posted a picture today of Sarour pointing up with her index finger in the jihadi (and especially ISIS) signal of God's oneness (Arabic: tawhid).
 Linda Sarsour pointing her finger as ISIS enthusiasts do. |
May 12, 2015 update: Sarsour has posted a stunning endorsement of Islamic law: "You'll know when you're living under Sharia Law if suddenly all your loans & credit cards become interest free. Sound nice, doesn't it?"
This provoked a funny response of Jeff Foxworthy-style replies of "You'll know when you're living under Sharia Law if suddenly ... "
... gays are thrown off high buildings. Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
... you have to pay jizya for being a non-muslim. Sounds like shit doesn't it?
... you're stoned to death after being raped. Sounds nice, doesn't it?
... your husband beats the shit out of you and it's completely normal day
... no-one is willing to give you loans or credit cards...
... your word is half that of a man. Nice!
May 31, 2015 update: Aki Muthali, a Canadian freelance writer has an article in Pakistan's Nation, "Let's talk about racism and sexism from world's majority – people of colour," in which she criticizes Sarsour as tolerant of Arab racism. Excerpts:
I'd like to address the irony courtesy of the identity politics pursued by minorities of the West. Those of Asian Caucasian heritage like Linda Sarsour and Bahar Mustafa tout their new-age definitions of "racism" and "sexism" to appeal to their own bigotry. ... Where would racism and sexism be without one of the most powerful people on Earth, the Arabs? The worst place for people of actual colour, those with obvious levels of melanin, like Africans and South Asians, is the Middle East. ...
I find it amusing that Linda Sarsour, who is appropriating the struggles of African Americans under the guise of "solidarity", has never once addressed any of these issues regarding "power and bigotry". Is it not dubious to march for Africans in one land while remaining silent about Africans being abused and enslaved by the Arabs in another land? It's clear Sarsour's narrative is that of the "white man vs the rest of us". Not a single Palestinian demonstration has been organized to support the migrant workers of colour who are systematically abused by Arab Muslims – yet, suddenly, their indignation has crossed oceans for Ferguson? ...
The Middle East is a perfect example of what happens when Sharia is implemented in the justice and social system. But a woman as Linda Sarsour with active ties to CAIR ... wouldn't be swayed by the brutality women and girls face in the actual Arab world as a result of Sharia. Sarsour has yet to condemn the honour killings in Palestine that has increased 3 times its national average since Hamas, a genocidal Islamist group, was willfully elected by Palestinians.
She applies the "Islamophobia" babble to deflect discourse regarding the tyranny imposed by Sharia on her Eastern brethren. Her selective understanding of Islam, much like Reza Aslan's and Mehdi Hasan's, displays an overwhelming volume of intellectual dishonesty. Just like Aslan, Sarsour echoes FGM is an "African problem." As a self-proclaimed "unapologetic Muslim", is she claiming the endorsement of FGM in Islamic scriptures is un-Islamic? But again, I don't expect much honesty from a woman who is associated with CAIR.
June 27, 2015 update: A fanatic anti-Zionist named Nora wrote Sarsour on Twitter, "I want to be @lsarsour when I grow up." To which our favorite narcissist replied, "Means a lot to me. Anyone can. We all have it in us."
July 23, 2015 update: Sarsour is complimenting herself again on Instagram, but this time more her clothing than her person: "The beauty of modesty. Loved my prayer outfit today for #Eid."
 Sarsour compliments her clothing. |
Aug. 9, 2015 update: In a nearly-3,000-word puff piece, "Linda Sarsour Is a Brooklyn Homegirl in a Hijab," Alan Feuer of the New York Times does manage to register a criticism of Sarsour's egomania:
"She's basically filled the void left by people like myself and other Muslim leaders who are also activists but don't have the luxury of time to appear on a 10 a.m. CNN show," said Debbie Almontaser, a New York educator and the board president of the Muslim Community Network. Ms. Almontaser added that modesty — "thinking as a collective, always volunteering others before oneself" — is a core Islamic value. "That sort of ingrained humility," she said, "is not exactly a part of who Linda is."
Aug. 22, 2015 update: Sarsour (left) proudly associates with one of the most execrable Islamist and anti-Zionist academics on an American campus, Hatem Bazian of UC-Berkeley.
Oct. 10, 2015 update: Why, look who's up there on the stage of the Nation of Islam's Million Man March 20th Anniversary with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It's none other than Linda Sarsour!
 Linda Sarsour (l) and Jeremiah Wright (r) at the Million Man March 20th Anniversary. (Screen grab from the C-SPAN coverage.) |
Oct. 11, 2015 update: Sarsour is again in hot water, this time because she tweeted a picture of a young boy walking down a road towards Israeli soldiers with rocks in each of his hands, calling this "The definition of courage."
 Linda Sarsour encourages attacks on the Israel Defense Forces. |
Oct. 23, 2015 update: Andrea Peyser devotes her New York Post column today, "Taxpayers should not be funding this anti-American hate-spewer," to the need to defund Sarsour's Arab-American Association of New York which currently receives $164,050 from the New York City taxpayer.
Dec. 9, 2015 update: Sarsour reacted negatively to a plea by Barack Obama that American Muslims help "root out" and confront extremist ideology in their communities: "We would never ask any other faith community to stand up and condemn acts of violence committed by people within their groups. The fact that this is only directed at the Muslim community is something that I personally can't accept."
Dec. 14, 2015 update: Sarsour wrote the forward to a petition offered by CAIR: "Please sign the Council on American-Islamic Relation's (CAIR) petition. Call on the Republican Party to demonstrate leadership within the conservative movement by denouncing Islamophobia."
Dec. 15, 2015 update: Sarsour teaches us today that "Islam is a religion that empowers women."
Feb. 27, 2016 update: Sarsour is starring at the ISNA conference in St. Louis on the theme of "Striving for Justice - the Prophetic Way of Life."
Mar. 11, 2016 update: The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City is granting Sarsour's organization, the Arab-American Association of New York, money for a mental health program. Apr. 2, 2016 update: The amount of the grant is $500,000. Comment: A small thank-you for her supporting his candidacy?
May 9, 2016 update: Sarsour showed off her profound knowledge of history on a panel at the Union Theological Seminary with a bizarre account of the Islamic prophet Muhammad: "Our prophet was a racial justice activist, a human rights activist, a feminist in his own right. He was a man that cared about the environment. He cared about animal rights. ... He was also the first victim of Islamophobia."
May 10, 2016 update: "Fake Activist Exposed: The Real Linda Sarsour" is a 4,500-word screed against our favorite mermaid. Written anonymously at a website called Ikhras from so radical an anti-Zionist perspective that another anti-Zionist actually raises the idea it's actually produced by "an extreme right-wing Zionist operation." Ikhras lambastes Sarsour as a limousine liberal devoted to self-promotion and power. Some choice quotes:
- "her entire public persona has now become a masquerade inundated with pretense and exaggeration."
- "Sarsour does not fast and is hardly religious although she does invoke religion when it serves her purpose"
- "the seduction of a photo-op with the Mayor [of New York City] and the perceived petty prestige that comes with it was apparently just too much to resist."
 Ikhras' caption to this picture reads: "The 'Revolutionary Activist' enjoys being chauffeured between events around New York." |
- "Even Palestinian-Americans who do not know Sarsour personally recognize a caricature type quality to her public behavior. In what is apparently an attempt to adhere to some stereotypical Brooklynite image, complete with an exaggerated and pretentious accent, she now comes across as an Arab parody of Rosie Perez."
- She betrays "a complete lack of a moral compass."
- "Sarsour is known to harbor an ugly racism towards African-Americans. ... [It] is common knowledge among the Arab-American community in NY, and it is members of this community that have a moral obligation to point out the foul racists and two-faced hypocrites. ... Sarsour is increasingly on the defensive but we must ensure that pressure is maintained and she is fully exposed."
- Sarsour's support for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign "is disingenuous, opportunistic, and, like all her 'activism,' motivated by self-interest. Her role in the Sanders campaign in NY has been invaluable in preparing for her own campaign next year. It provided her even more media access and presented her with yet another opportunity to latch on to an independent phenomenon in the name of the Arab and Muslim communities."
- Sarsour has no "knowledge or understanding of any political parties or movements in the Arab world. ... Sarsour is one of those clueless Arab-Americans that feign knowledge of the Arab world by invoking their ethnic heritage."
- "Sarsour has no genuine convictions or principles nor is she actually committed to any cause other than her own full-time hobby. To that end she has demonstrated no hesitation to exploit any cause."
- "In addition to a lack of conviction and principles, Sarsour has also demonstrated a very shallow understanding of her own favorite topics. Her knowledge of U.S. history, politics, and society does not extend beyond a Middle School curriculum and she approaches these subjects without any serious thought or critical analysis."
- "Sarsour will undoubtedly continue her ego-driven, one-person circus act. She recently hired a professional videographer to produce a self-promotional video in which she explains she is very modest and humble."
May 23, 2016 update: The ever-immature Sarsour posted this message on her Facebook page: "I am going as an official delegate to the Democratic National Convention in July! Now I have to decide if I am going to behave or not."
Dec. 6, 2016 update: Speaking for annual American Muslims for Palestine, Sarsour attacked Jews who worried about hostility toward Muslims in America as well as fellow Muslims who accept their good will, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reports.
We have limits to the type of friendships that we're looking for right now and I want to be friends with those whom I know have been steadfast, courageous, have been standing up and protecting their own communities, those who have taken the risk to stand up and say – we are with the Palestinian people, we unequivocally support BDS when it comes to Palestinian human rights and have been attacked viciously by the very people who are telling you that they're about to stand on the front line of the Muslim registry program. No thank you, sisters and brothers.
Dec. 27, 2016 update: Sarsour sure has a way with words. Look at this one, from the MAS-ICNA convention: "The sacrifice the black Muslim slaves went through in this country is nothing compared to Islamaphobia today." @lsarsour #MAS16"
Dec. 30, 2016 update: Sarsour's deft wit and sharp keyboard (".@DanielPipes gets refuted and still puts out false statements. Oh, I forgot that's what he does for a living. ") leave me devastated. Happily for me, though, her Twitter followers have her number.
Jan. 19, 2017 update: I rubbed my eyes but – sure enough – the New York Times published criticism of Sarsour. It's from a feminist perspective, written by Emma-Kate Symons, in anticipation of the Women's March on Washington to take place on Jan. 21.
Linda Sarsour is a religiously conservative veiled Muslim woman, embracing a fundamentalist worldview requiring women to "modestly" cover themselves, a view which has little to do with female equality and much more of a connection with the ideology of political Islam than feminism. Could we imagine a wig-wearing Orthodox woman emerging from a similar "purity"-focused culture predicated on sexual segregation and covering women, headlining such an event? No, because she is rightly assumed to be intensely conservative, not progressive on issues surrounding women's roles and their bodies. Bizarrely, however, it is Sarsour, who has taken a high-profile role speaking about ordering pro-life women out of the march, after a bitter dispute over the initial participation of a Texas anti-abortion group. In justifying the decision, the co-organizer invoked the liberal language of choice, despite her association with an illiberal ideology that many Muslim women say is all about men controlling their bodies, and taking away that choice on a range of issues including reproductive health.
 Gloria Steinem and Linda Sarsour onstage during the Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21, 2017. |
Jan. 21, 2017 update: Linda Sarsour had herself photographed with Salah Sarsour at the December 2016 joint Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America conference, writes Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller.
 Salah Sarsour (L) and Linda Sarsour (R) at the MAS-ICNA conference. |
Salah, who may be her relative, was a Hamas operative jailed in Israel in the 1990s because of his fundraising for Hamas. The ADL reported in 2013:
According to a November 2001 FBI memorandum, Jamil Sarsour was arrested in 1998 for funding Hamas and told Israeli investigators that Salah Sarsour was involved in funding Hamas through his fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF).
In 1995, Salah Sarsour was arrested and imprisoned by Israel for eight months for supporting Hamas. According to his brother, while in prison, Salah became close to the West Bank commander of Hamas's Izzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed military wing of Hamas.
Jan. 23, 2017 update: Linda Sarour's meeting with Salah Sarsour has caused a stir, prompting CAIR to issue a full-throated endorsement of her: "CAIR Supports #IMarchWithLinda as Haters Attack Women's March on Washington Organizer Linda Sarsour."
 CAIR stands by Linda Sarsour (and also Salah Sarsour?). |
Jan. 25, 2017 update: Debra Nussbaum Cohen writes about Sarsour under the title "Why Jewish Leaders Rally Behind a Palestinian-American Women's March Organizer" in Ha'aretz. Excerpts:
When online attacks against Women's March co-chair Linda Sarsour started this week, progressive Jews were among the first people to back her on social media. "Jews are some of my biggest supporters," Sarsour told Haaretz in an interview. ...
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. ...
Among those tweeting their support for Sarsour are former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders — for whom Sarsour spoke as a surrogate after his final debate with Hillary Clinton — and actor Mark Ruffalo.
These various Jewish actors were pleased that Sarsour did not drag anti-Israel views into the march. The Ha'aretz reporter states that "Sarsour is careful to distinguish between her antipathy toward Israel and her support of Jews."
Jan. 30, 2017 updates: (1) Sarsour's ties to CAIR thicken as she agrees to serve as the lead plaintiff in its lawsuit against the Trump administration's executive order temporarily stopping immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The "Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief" is stunningly political and belligerent in its presentation. Here are the first paragraphs:
1. The vulgar animosity that accounts for the existence of Executive Order entitled "Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals" (hereinafter the "Muslim Exclusion Order"), issued the same day of this action, is plain to see, and the absence of the words Islam or Muslim does nothing to obscure it.
2. In fact, the Executive Order has already gained national and international media attention and nationwide protests, and has been dubbed uniformly as the "Muslim Ban" because its apparent and true purpose and underlying motive—which is to ban Muslims from certain Muslim‐majority countries (Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) (hereinafter the "Muslim majority countries")—has been broadcast to the general public by the Trump Administration.
The complaint then veers into fantasy territory by claiming that an order stopping immigration will cause Muslims living in the United States to have to leave the country:
3. Less known is the second and equally central purpose of the Muslim Exclusion Order – to initiate the mass expulsion of immigrant and nonimmigrant Muslims lawfully residing in the United States by denying them the ability to renew their lawful status or receive immigration benefits afforded to them under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ("INA") – based solely on their religious beliefs.
4. Many Muslims lawfully in the United States that are targeted by the Muslim Exclusion Order, including some of the John Doe and John Doe Plaintiffs, will be forced – as a result of the Muslim Exclusion Order – to return to their home countries, where they will likely face persecution, torture and even execution, simply because they are Muslim.
Comment: CAIR inviting and Sarsour accepting the position of lead plaintiff is a risky step for both given her blatant and extreme views, plus her personal history.
(2) David Swindle of Islamist Watch points out Sarsour's duplicity when it comes to gender issues, stating that she "cannot march alongside gay rights advocates and feminists one month and then speak and schmooze with Islamist homophobes and misogynists the next." But, of course, she does. For how long? "With moral contradictions like these on full display, people might eventually develop the impression that she doesn't actually believe what she's saying."
Jan. 31, 2017 update: Oh no, Sarsour has blocked me on Twitter, joining other left-Islamist stalwarts like Nihad Awad, Keith Ellison, George Galloway, and Dawud Walid in taking this step.
Happily, despite the block, it's not at all difficult to keep track of Sarsour's tweets.
Comments: (1) I also do my share of blocking, but only against those who are vulgar or vicious. I'd never consider blocking a political opponent like those named above. (2) To his credit, CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper not only does not block me but he follows me.
Feb. 1, 2017 update: As Sarsour's profile rises, so does her memorably vulgar and vicious tweet of Mar. 8, 2011 ("Brigitte Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don't deserve to be women"). Today, Hirsi Ali addressed it on television. In a dignified and serious way, she accused Sarsour of being a "fake feminist" who apologizes for Shar'i laws that oppress women. It's a brilliant performance that deserves watching.
Feb. 2, 2017 update: This is not so much about Sarsour but about the exquisite moral dilemma she poses for some delicate leftist Jewish souls: Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, dilates on what he calls
the "Linda Sarsour moment" in American Jewish politics, wherein a major social justice and interfaith activist who was a central organizer of the women's marches around the country — and who has a track record of outspoken criticism against Israel and Zionism — invites controversy, and hopefully more thoughtful deliberation, on the choices we make about our alliances in the pursuit of our political causes.
If you can figure out what conclusion Kurtzer reaches (I think he's in favor of working with her), let me know.
Feb. 3, 2017 update: I transform this long weblog entry into a short, sharp article at "Linda Sarsour, The Left's Latest Star."
Feb. 4, 2017 updates: (1) Sarsour is an avid tweeter; she joined Twitter in March 2009 and has sent out 84,000 tweets since then. That amounts to about:
- One tweet every 35 minutes when she's awake.
- An oeuvre much larger than the Jewish and Christian Bibles together.
- Nearly 9 months of work devoted to tweeting (estimating one minute per tweet and a 40-hour work-week).
But today, one day after my article on her appeared, she blithly repudiated this vast effort with a new tweet:
Comment: Sorry, this does not suffice. Perhaps if Sarsour apologized for her vile, aggressive, Islamist, and antisemitic sentiments a discussion could begin. But merely waving away an eight years' record won't work.
(2) A meme demonstrating the retreat of Western values features Sarsour.
Mar. 11, 2017 update: Tightening her ever-closer bond with CAIR, Sarour keynotes the Philadelphia chapter's annual dinner today, tagged "Revelation and Resistance."
Mar. 1, 2017 update: Sarsour turned down an opportunity to listen to Trump deliver a major speech in the U.S. Congress on the grounds that "I just couldn't bring myself to come into that space and legitimize a man who I believe is not my president." Comment: Not her president? Democracy requires that each of us accept that our favored candidates will sometimes lose. That Sarsour rejects this basic premise of civilized life reveals her profoundly anti-democratic outlook.
Apr. 3, 2017 update: The New York Post today calls Sarsour "NYC's queen of hate."
May 23, 2017 updates: (1) At Dartmouth College on May 12, a male student asked Sarsour about her notorious "take their vaginas away" tweet (see the Mar. 8, 2011 update above). Video footage shows (in the description of Campus Reform) that,
After a long pause, Sarsour disregards the question and points out that the student is a "young white man" and is not impacted by the discussion, noting that "this is an event organized by an Asian American" and asking why the student is even present at the discussion, complaining that he "is not directly impacted by any of the issues that I mentioned."
Sarsour even tries to say that the tweet was "a copy-and-paste that [the student] got from a right wing blog", and accuses the student of "never going to my Twitter to see if [the tweet] was actually there." ...
Sarsour eventually acknowledged the tweet, but defended it as a youthful indiscretion. "I was in my twenties when was that? 2011?" she states with an air of dismissiveness. "People say stupid shit sometimes, right?"
(2) CAMERA's Ricki Hollander has published a lengthy analysis, "Who Is Linda Sarsour?" that overlaps with this weblog entry but also contains important new information.
May 26, 2017 update: In the protest against Sarsour speaking at the commencement ceremony of City University of New York's Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Milo Yiannopoulos commented that "Working underneath all of that sweaty polyester is a mind that hates America."
June 7, 2017 update: Rock star Courtney Love Cobain initiated a Twitter war with Sarsour by tweeting to her 1.57 million followers "You're a vile disgrace to women and all mankind @lsarsour."
Courtney Love's later responses to Sarsour and others, all on the same day, focused on the case of Rahma Warsame, a Somali woman in Ohio who falsely claimed to be the victim of a hate crime:
- "she's an anti Semetic fear mongering liar, who's attacking Americans for hate crimes that are not even real. The police need to investigate"
- "She's collecting money for an incident that never occurred.Blaming the good people of Ohio for a crime that never took place.that's criminal twitter.com/X58eJjhEjH"
- "This incident never occurred. yet she collected all this money. Where is the money now? Sorry but she's a criminal"
- "A lot of fraud going on here. Glad I stumbled across what liar this woman is."
- "not when she's using fake stories to generate sympathy and collect $$ under the mask of women's rights and solidarity. that's just wrong!"
- "I worked my ass off my entire life to defend women, I didn't create fake stories and lie about them nor rip people off financially. Linda
- "seems like a publicity stint and perhaps it's been effective for her, but I know a rat when I see one"
- "I wholeheartedly feel she's bs with a self serving agenda.I've spent my entire career defending women's rights. Linda? I smell a rat"
- "Ok I made my point and I supported it with evidence and now here you are mudslinging. Disgusting"
- "you're just inciting anti American rhetoric"
- "Well now I believe she's nothing less than a fraud.. she appears to be a anti American fear mongering fraud."
- "I'm sorry Linda but I feel you're a fraud and you're inciting anti American rhetoric. I have zero faith in you and your plight. very fishy"
- "I never mentioned any religion. you just confirmed to me you're an anti-semite anti American fraud. Goodbye,I'm done with u"
- "I didn't even know nor care what religion she is. I was calling her out for exploiting a fake story, inciting hatred towards Americans"
- "I won't follow anything thats being led by an anti-Semetic terrorist that's using feminism as a tool to promote her radicalism"
June 9, 2017 update: Western Australia's remarkable Imam Shaikh M. Tawhidi challenges "Sister Linda Sarsour" (or her imams) to a debate. He's also offered to pay for it and do all the arrangements. If he loses, he says he will resign as an imam.
June 10, 2017 update: Sarsour the historian weighs with a tweet in on a current controversy: "There is NOT ONE example of Muslims trying to impose Sharia on ANY ONE. No legislations. Anti-Muslim rallies playing on the gullible." Comment: Is she an ignoramus or a liar?
June 30, 2017 update: Sarsour declared ISIS to be a Western, not a Muslim, problem:
Why do I have to explain to everybody where ISIS came from? We have to challenge the frame that the media puts us in, to say - as an example - that we are the root of the problem when it comes to terrorism. The root of the problem doesn't come from within the Muslim community. It comes from a politicized foreign policy of war on our people, and those most directly impacted by groups like ISIS and wars are Muslims. So, I don't know why we have to protect ourselves in the media when we are not the ones who created the problem.
July 6, 2017 update: Sarsour made incendiary remarks about jihad against Trump:
I hope that we, when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad, that we are struggling against tyrants and rulers - not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House. ... Our number-one and top priority is to protect and defend our community, it is not to assimilate and please any other people and authority. Our obligation is to our young people, is to our women, and make sure our women are protected in our community and our top priority - and even higher than all those other priorities - is to please Allah and only Allah.
Comment: Has the U.S. Secret Service taken notice of this demand for war on the administration? Or does Sarsour get a pass because she will proclaim the tired excuse that jihad is but a method of spiritual betterment?
July 7, 2017 update: CAIR responded to the uproar (or in its parlance, "smear campaign") resulting from Sarsour's call for jihad with a #IStandWithLinda push back.
July 11, 2017 updates: (1) Sarsour answered her critics with a threat: "Just know that I am taking names of those who have lied about me to defame my character. I may be quiet now but not for long. I am working." Scary stuff, Linda.
(2) The Algemeiner's Rachel Frommer found that Sarsour's vaunted gesture of raising funds to help repair a vandalized Jewish cemetery in Colorado was a fraud; no money was transferred.
July 17, 2017 update: New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) has confirmed the cemetery fraud.
July 21, 2017 update: Zuhdi Jasser calls Sarsour "a master of dissimulation and deception, a megalomaniac, and a faux progressive."
Aug. 28, 2017 update: Ever the model citizen, Sarsour urged her 231,000 followers on Twitter to "Donate to the #Harvey Hurricane Relief Fund." But the link she provided goes to a page hosted by the "Texas Organizing Project Education Fund," a left-wing group that "promotes social and economic equality for low to moderate income Texans through community and electoral organizing." Not exactly disaster relief.
Sarsour got pummeled for this deception first on social media, then in the mainstream media. As ever, she denied, denied, denied. But she paid a price in terms of credibility.
Dec. 17, 2017 update: Asmi Fathelbab, a woman who worked at Sarsour's Arab American Association of New York as a contractor in 2009, has accused Sarsour of covering up for a man, Majed Seif, who persistently sexually molested Fathelbab.
Sarsour means cockroach in Arabic.
Feb. 8, 2018 update: Sarsour compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to the Gestapo.
Apr. 18, 2018 update: Sarour called the Anti-Defamation League an "anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian organization that peddles islamophobia and attacks America's prominent Muslim orgs and activists."
Sep. 11, 2018 update: Someone, somewhere has figured out what Sarsour's last name means in Arabic (cockroach).
Aug. 23, 2019 update: Everyone's favorite egomaniacal Islamist is coming out with her autobiography, We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance, featuring a foreword by Harry Belafonte.
Aug. 18, 2020 update: After several years of unimpeded ascent in the Democratic Party, Sarsour met with a harsh rebuff from the Biden campaign. Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman did not mince words:
Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform. ... She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.
Aug. 23, 2020 update: Disavowed publicly, Sarsour received a private apology from the Biden campaign; and while that does not quite make up, it no doubt helps. Ashley Allison, national coalitions director for the Biden campaign, said she empathized with "the pain" that the campaign had caused to Arabs and Muslims by disavowing Sarsour: "I am sorry that that happened. And I hope that whatever trust was broken, that this conversation is one small step to help build back the trust, but that is not the last time we have this conversation."
Apr. 7, 2022 update: The insurance company Geico somehow stumbled into inviting Sarsour to speak at an internal company diversity event celebrating Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month. When the executives learned about Sarsour's history of bigotry, they immediately canceled her and ate humble pie: "We apologize to our employees, customers, and others for our initial plan to invite Linda Sarsour to speak at our internal event. ... Geico does not condone hatred of any kind, and we do not stand for or with anyone who does." Sarsour responded with usual aggressiveness.
— GEICO (@GEICO) April 7, 2022
July 15, 2024 update: Despite the 2020 Biden campaign's disavowal of Sarsour (see three entries up), it just came out that she visited the Biden White House for an Eid al-Fitr celebration on May 1, 2023.
July 24, 2024 update: At a protest in Washington titled "Arrest Netanyahu," Sarsour told the crowd "The reason that Joe Biden is not at the top of the nomination of the Democratic Party is because of you, my friends. The reason why Kamala Harris is not presiding on Benjamin Netanyahu the war criminal's speech in Congress today, is because of you. The reason why dozens of Members of Congress are boycotting the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is because of you."
