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After the Women's March, Sarsour became the subject of online criticism that she described as the work of "fake news purveyors" and "right-wing media outlets recirculating false information". The posts used altered photographs and false or partial quotations to falsely claim that she supported Islamic State militants and favored replacing the U.S. legal system with Islamic religious law.<ref name=AP>{{cite news |last1=Hajela |first1=Deepti |title=Attacks target Muslim-American activist after DC march|url=https://apnews.com/30499a4ba384447ba85b4054e87407dd |publisher=[[Associated Press]]|date=January 26, 2017}}</ref>
After the Women's March, Sarsour became the subject of online criticism that she described as the work of "fake news purveyors" and "right-wing media outlets recirculating false information". The posts used altered photographs and false or partial quotations to falsely claim that she supported Islamic State militants and favored replacing the U.S. legal system with Islamic religious law.<ref name=AP>{{cite news |last1=Hajela |first1=Deepti |title=Attacks target Muslim-American activist after DC march|url=https://apnews.com/30499a4ba384447ba85b4054e87407dd |publisher=[[Associated Press]]|date=January 26, 2017}}</ref>

In a March 2017 interview, Sarsour argued that [[anti-Semitism]] in the United States, unlike anti-black racism and Islamophobia, is "horrific", but not systemic.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1mbhfgOP_4</ref> Her remarks were criticized by Jennifer Richler in an opinion piece for ''[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]'' who called the statement a "mendacious claim".<ref>http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/237149/linda-sarsour-jewish-enablers</ref>


Speaking at the [[Islamic Society of North America]] Convention in Chicago in July 2017, Sarsour, citing Islamic scripture, said the best form of jihad was "a word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader", and "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...not only abroad in the Middle East or on 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." Sarsour met with backlash from conservative media outlets and personalities for her use of the word "[[jihad]]." She denied that she was calling for violence of any kind.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Schmidt|first1=Samantha|title=Muslim activist Linda Sarsour’s reference to ‘jihad’ draws conservative wrath|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/07/muslim-activist-linda-sarsours-reference-to-jihad-draws-conservative-wrath/?utm_term=.62ef5ef7896b|publisher=The Washington Post|accessdate=7 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Schwarz|first1=Ian|title=Linda Sarsour Asks Muslims To Form "Jihad" Against Trump, Not To Assimilate|url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/07/06/linda_sarsour_asks_muslims_to_form_jihad_against_trump_not_to_assimilate.html|publisher=RealClearPolitics}}</ref>
Speaking at the [[Islamic Society of North America]] Convention in Chicago in July 2017, Sarsour, citing Islamic scripture, said the best form of jihad was "a word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader", and "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...not only abroad in the Middle East or on 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." Sarsour met with backlash from conservative media outlets and personalities for her use of the word "[[jihad]]." She denied that she was calling for violence of any kind.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Schmidt|first1=Samantha|title=Muslim activist Linda Sarsour’s reference to ‘jihad’ draws conservative wrath|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/07/muslim-activist-linda-sarsours-reference-to-jihad-draws-conservative-wrath/?utm_term=.62ef5ef7896b|publisher=The Washington Post|accessdate=7 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Schwarz|first1=Ian|title=Linda Sarsour Asks Muslims To Form "Jihad" Against Trump, Not To Assimilate|url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/07/06/linda_sarsour_asks_muslims_to_form_jihad_against_trump_not_to_assimilate.html|publisher=RealClearPolitics}}</ref>

Revision as of 04:42, 17 July 2017

Linda Sarsour
Sarsour in May 2016
Born
Brooklyn, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materKingsborough Community College
Brooklyn College
Occupation(s)Activist, writer
Known forCo-chair of the 2017 Women's March

Linda Sarsour (born March 19, 1980)[citation needed] is a Palestinian-American political activist, self-described as progressive, and former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.[1]

Personal life

Sarsour was born in Brooklyn, New York[2] and is the oldest of seven children born to a pair of Palestinian immigrants.[3] She was raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and went to John Jay High School in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Sarsour was married in an arranged marriage at the age of 17.[3] She had three children by her mid-20s.[3] After high school, she took courses at Kingsborough Community College and Brooklyn College with the goal of becoming an English teacher.[4] Sarsour lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.[3]

Political activism career

"We are in a critical moment as a country and I feel compelled to focus my energy on the national level and building the capacity of the progressive movement, so it is with a heavy heart that I announce that I will be leaving my post as the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York."

—Linda Sarsour, in her resignation letter from her position as executive director of the Brooklyn-based Arab American Association of New York.[5]

Shortly before the September 11 attacks, Sarsour began to volunteer for the Arab American Association of New York.[3] She worked to have Muslim holidays recognized in New York City's public schools, which now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.[4]

In 2007 Sarsour appeared in The Hijabi Monologues, a performance art piece based on stories about veiling.[6]

After the Arab American Association of New York's executive director was killed in a car accident in 2011, Sarsour was appointed to the position, having already served in a variety of roles at the organization.[4] As director, she advocated for passage of the Community Safety Act in New York, which created an independent office to review police policy and expanded the definition of bias-based profiling in New York. Sarsour and her organization pressed for the law after instances of what they saw as biased policing in local neighborhoods, and it passed over the objections of the city's mayor and police chief.[4]

Sarsour has spoken of the importance of her former organization in building a progressive movement in the United States.[1][not specific enough to verify]

In 2011 Sarsour participated in the Women's Media Center's Progressive Women's Voices Media and Leadership Training Program.[7]

In 2016 Sarsour ran for a position as a County Committee member with the Democratic Party of Kings County, New York.[8] She placed third in that election.[9]

Sarsour endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States in the 2016 election.[10]

Teresa Shook and Bob Bland recruited Sarsour to be a co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, held the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.[11]

After a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri was vandalized in an apparent anti-Semitic incident in February 2017, Sarsour worked with other Muslim activists to launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to repair the damage and restore the gravesites. More than $125,000 was raised, and Sarsour pledged to donate any funds not needed at the cemetery to other Jewish community centers or sites targeted by vandalism. She said the fundraising effort would "send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration, and violence in America".[12][13] St. Louis's United Hebrew Congregation Senior Rabbi, Brigitte S. Rosenberg, whose congregants have family members buried in the vandalized cemetery, called the campaign "a beautiful gesture".[14]

In March 2017 Sarsour was a co-chairwoman of the Day Without a Woman protest, during which she was arrested along with other activists.[15]

Sarsour is a fellow at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.[3]

Political views

Palestine and Israel

Sarsour has stated that she does not support either the Palestinian militant group Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, preferring nonviolent Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation policies.[7][non-primary source needed] She told New York station NY1:

I do believe that Israel has the right to exist [...] I mean I wouldn't want — I mean where are they gonna go? That's why I want a one-state solution. I think we can all live together in one state with peace and justice and equality for all.[7]

Sarsour has voiced support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.[16] She has stated that members of her extended family have been arrested on accusations of supporting Hamas, but said they were not necessarily charged with crimes and that their situation was "just the reality of Palestinians living under military occupation".[7][17] In a March 2017 interview with The Nation, Sarsour said, "You can't be a feminist in the United States and stand up for the rights of the American woman and then say that you don't want to stand up for the rights of Palestinian women in Palestine. It's all connected."[18]

In May 2017 a group of around 100 Holocaust survivors wrote to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo asking him to stop Sarsour from speaking at a City University of New York (CUNY) graduation, citing Sarsour's calls to boycott Jewish businesses in Israel and her association with Rasmea Odeh, who had been convicted and served a prison sentence for the murder of two students in the 1969 Jerusalem Supermarket bombing. State assemblyman Dov Hikind also urged CUNY to cancel the speech. Neither Cuomo nor CUNY responded to the petition.[19]

Other

Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali criticized Sarsour as a "defender of sharia law". Sarsour had said in a 2011 tweet that Ali and another woman "don't deserve to be women," adding, "I wish I could take their vaginas away."[20][21] When a Dartmouth College student activist asked her about it at an event for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Sarsour asked whether the questioner, whom she identified as a "white man," should ask such a question at an event for people of color. She then defended the tweet, saying, "People say stupid shit sometimes, right? I will be judged by my impeccable track record," citing various human rights causes she championed. The activist's organization, which publicized the exchange, linked the tweet to Ali's experience as a victim of female genital mutilation in Somalia.[22]

After the Women's March, Sarsour became the subject of online criticism that she described as the work of "fake news purveyors" and "right-wing media outlets recirculating false information". The posts used altered photographs and false or partial quotations to falsely claim that she supported Islamic State militants and favored replacing the U.S. legal system with Islamic religious law.[17]

Speaking at the Islamic Society of North America Convention in Chicago in July 2017, Sarsour, citing Islamic scripture, said the best form of jihad was "a word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader", and "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...not only abroad in the Middle East or on 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." Sarsour met with backlash from conservative media outlets and personalities for her use of the word "jihad." She denied that she was calling for violence of any kind.[23][24]

References

  1. ^ a b
    • Katinas, Paula (February 21, 2017). "Sarsour leaving post at Arab American Association of NY". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. We are in a critical moment as a country and I feel compelled to focus my energy on the national level and building the capacity of the progressive movement, so it is with a heavy heart that I announce that I will be leaving my post as the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.
    • Alter, Charlotte (January 20, 2017). "How the Women's March Has United Progressives of All Stripes". Time. 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... "people are expecting us to show up at a march and talk about our bodies and our reproductive rights," says co-chair Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. Instead, she says, "we're bringing together all the progressive movements.
    • Walters, Joanna (January 14, 2017). "Women's March on Washington set to be one of America's biggest protests". The Guardian. We have no choice. We need to stand up against an administration that threatens everything we believe in, in what we hope will become one of the largest grassroots, progressive movements ever seen, said Sarsour.
  2. ^ Mitter, Siddhartha (May 9, 2015). "Linda Sarsour: New Generation of Muslim Activists". Al Jazeera America. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Mishkin, Budd (July 26, 2011). "One On 1: Arab American Association Director Finds Time For It All". NY1. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d Feuer, Alan (August 9, 2015). "Linda Sarsour Is a Brooklyn Homegirl in a Hijab". The New York Times. p. MB1. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  5. ^ Katinas, Paula (February 21, 2017). "Sarsour leaving post at Arab American Association of NY". Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
  6. ^ Sahar Amer (September 9, 2014). What is Veiling?. Edinburgh University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-7486-9684-0.
  7. ^ a b c d Budd Mishkin (July 26, 2011). "One On 1: Arab American Association Director Finds Time For It All". NY1.
  8. ^ "Primary Contest List" (PDF). Board of Elections City of New York. August 31, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  9. ^ "Statement and Return Report by Election District" (PDF). Board of Elections City of New York. September 13, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  10. ^ Neidig, Harper (April 9, 2016). "Sanders campaign releases Spike Lee-produced ad". The Hill blogs. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  11. ^ Alter, Charlotte (January 20, 2017). "The Women's March on Washington United Progressives". Time. Retrieved January 23, 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  12. ^ Hanau, Shira (February 22, 2017). "Muslims 'Overjoyed' As Donations Pour In To Repair Vandalized St. Louis Jewish Cemetery". The Forward.
  13. ^ "Jewish governor of Missouri, Muslim activists pitching in to repair vandalized Jewish cemetery". Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 21, 2017
  14. ^ Kestenbaum, Sam (February 23, 2017). "Muslim Campaign For Jewish Cemetery Praised As 'Beautiful Gesture' — But Some Question Motives". The Forward.
  15. ^ Susan Chira; Rachel Abrams; Katie Rogers (March 8, 2017). "'Day Without a Woman' Protest Tests a Movement's Staying Power". The New York Times.
  16. ^ * Nussbaum Cohen, Debra (January 25, 2017). "Why Jewish Leaders Rally Behind a Palestinian-American Women's March Organizer". Haaretz. In her interview with Haaretz Sarsour acknowledged, "I am a critic of the State of Israel. I always will be. I have come out in full support of BDS."
    • Harkov, Lahav (September 9, 2016). "Police Remove Anti-israel Protesters from NY Council Debate Against BDS". The Jerusalem Post. Arab American Association of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour, an outspoken BDS supporter, said the resolution impinges on the right to protest. "Whatever happened to, 'I don't agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend your right to say it?'" Sarsour asked The New York Daily News.
    • Toure, Madina (September 14, 2016). "City Council Passes Anti-BDS Resolution Amid Tense Debate Over Movement's Legitimacy". New York Observer. At a hearing on the resolution last week by the City Council's Committee on Contracts, officers kicked out opponents of the resolution who were shouting. Linda Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, said Council members "have failed us" by voting for a resolution that violates First Amendment rights. "The fact that members of the City Council decided to antagonize human rights activists when they should be focused on bringing New Yorkers together is irresponsible," Sarsour said in a statement.
    • Agerholm, Harriet (February 23, 2017). "Pro-Palestinian activist raises $100,000 for vandalised Jewish cemetery". The Independent. Linda Sarsour – a Palestinian-American Muslim rights campaigner who has spoken in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) action group – co-founded the fund after more than 100 headstones in Missouri's 123-year-old Chesed Shel Emeth graveyard were toppled.
  17. ^ a b Hajela, Deepti (January 26, 2017). "Attacks target Muslim-American activist after DC march". Associated Press.
  18. ^ "Can You Be a Zionist Feminist? Linda Sarsour Says No". The Nation. March 13, 2017.
  19. ^ "Holocaust survivors attempt to prevent Linda Sarsour from CUNY event". The Jerusalem Post. May 17, 2017.
  20. ^ WITM staff (February 2, 2017). "Ayaan Hirsi Ali says controversial Women's March organizer is a 'fake feminist'". The New York Times.
  21. ^ "'Defender of Sharia': Ayaan Hirsi Ali Slams Women's March Organizer". Fox News. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  22. ^ Nazaryan, Alexander (May 24, 2017). "Linda Sarsour, Feminist Movement Leader, Too Extreme for CUNY Graduation Speech, Critics Argue". Newsweek.
  23. ^ Schmidt, Samantha. "Muslim activist Linda Sarsour's reference to 'jihad' draws conservative wrath". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  24. ^ Schwarz, Ian. "Linda Sarsour Asks Muslims To Form "Jihad" Against Trump, Not To Assimilate". RealClearPolitics.
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