Why It’s Difficult For Me to Defend Linda Sarsour Despite Our Shared Faith

In the span of a few weeks Linda Sarsour has received immense backlash over controversial statements and has even been accused of potential financial fraud. It’s been an interesting month for the social justice activist and women’s rights advocate, to say the least. I’ll start with the latter charge because the accusation is salacious, and I believe Linda’s account. However some of the criticism facing Sarsour is warranted, and if she avoided the unnecessary controversies, her messaging would go further.
Earlier this month, the Algemeiner Journal detailed Sarsour’s proposal to provide funding to restore a historic Jewish cemetery in Colorado, but insinuated that she shirked her responsibility to help the site. This effort is separate from Sarsour and her colleague Tarik El-Messidi’s widely reported campaign to repair a historic Jewish cemetery in St Louis, Missouri. That fundraiser exceeded its expectations and was able to provide funds for many Jewish cemeteries around the country that fell victim to vandalism during the same timeframe. This beautiful display of interfaith solidarity in a time of rising discrimination was crucial to combating divisive hatred.
The Algemeiner report detailed the fact that the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis received a check from Sarsour and El-Messidi, and that the two were inspired to launch a crowdsourcing campaign after the cemetery suffered from vandalism earlier this year. Both activists decided to approach the Golden Hill Cemetery in Lakewood, Colorado with the intention of helping to restore it as well from the supplementary funds.
The article creates the impression that neither Sarsour nor El-Messidi intended in providing the money to the cemetery. The author of the article, Rachel Frommer, has recently provided an update to her piece, quoting Sarsour about how she and El-Messidi are awaiting a detailed proposal from the cemetery’s owners as to how the money would be spent.
What seems like a harmless issue of communication and navigation of non-profit bureaucracy has been turned into something much more nefarious in the right-wing media. Social media lit up over the past few weeks over these claims of withholding funds, many of which came from anonymous trolls who are already hostile towards Sarsour.
Although much of the recent attacks on Sarsour have been unfair questioning of her character, I believe some of her actions and statements have been misguided and could have been avoided if better judgement had been utilized.
At the start of this month, Sarsour gave a keynote address to the Islamic Society of North America in which she called on fellow Muslims to take part in a “jihad” against the Trump administration. Sarsour spoke about her “perpetual outrage” at the administration’s existence and encouraged others to pushback against policies she saw as detrimental to Muslims. The video from her speech has gone viral, with many conservative media outlets using an edited clip to portray Sarsour’s comments as a call to violence.
I don’t believe Sarsour was calling for Muslims to take up arms against the current president, as it’s being portrayed by some outlets. She was speaking to a room full of Muslims who understand the nuance of the term “jihad.” Sarsour detailed in her speech how the Prophet Muhammad mentioned that the most powerful form of jihad is speaking the truth to power. However, for the general public who isn’t well-versed in Islamic theology, the word “jihad” elicits thoughts of violence and terrorism from the holy war interpretation found throughout the Quran.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Sarsour speaks on the word “jihad” and how terrorists have co-opted its true meaning. She’s right to blame terrorists for the public’s current association of the term “jihad” with terrorism, yet Sarsour should be able to understand the public’s consternation with the word. I cannot say Sarsour knew how her statements would be perceived or that she wanted to speak on a jihad against the Trump administration as a bait-and-switch tactic for conservative media to then lambast their reflexive bigotry. In spite of that, Sarsour could have avoided the entire thing by distinguishing the meaning in her speech.
Sarsour has become a prominent political figure since her involvement in the Women’s March and has been scrutinized for almost every statement she has made after the national spotlight. I would chalk up her comments on jihad earlier in the month as a mistake, but her actions on social media last week lead me to believe Sarsour has a terrible messaging problem brought on by her inability to take criticism lightly.
On July 16, the official twitter profile of the Women’s March organizers tweeted out a happy birthday message to Assata Shakur. This decision was met with scathing criticism from both supporters and opponents of the organization for their support of Shakur and her controversial past. This prompted them to put out a statement through a series of tweets the next day. In their tweets, it sounds as though the organizers of the feminist platform offered their full throated defense of Shakur’s actions leading up to her killing a state trooper in 1973.
Their most vocal and prominent critic of this decision was CNN anchor Jake Tapper who tweeted out a message critical of the post that specifically called out Sarsour and organizers of the Chicago Dyke March, a group which stirred up controversy for their exclusion of Jewish women in support of Israel. Sarsour responded to Tapper’s tweet with a message of her own.
She accused the reporter of joining in the “ranks of the alt-right” by “targeting” her on social media. What’s preposterous about this is that Tapper is of Jewish heritage and is a strong critic of the Trump administration while the alt-right is notoriously anti-Semitic and pro-Trump. In an email to Newsweek, Sarsour clarified her tweet to mean that “in the midst of a smear campaign against me from the alt-right he joined in.” Although I believe this is what Sarsour meant, it’s not how it came across.
The back and forth continued when she then asked Tapper a rhetorical question as to what her “ugly” sentiments were. Sarsour asked Tapper if her identity as a Palestinian Muslim or advocate of social justice and immigrants was cause for criticism. This is where a lot of activists on the left lose me and others who consider themselves moderates. Sarsour’s deep dive into identity politics and veiled accusation of bigotry against a news anchor were juvenile and beneath her own dignity. Without hesitation, Tapper responded to her question with a hard hitting answer.
Tapper sent out another tweet in reply to Sarsour’s question, critical of her past tweet on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a well-known critic of Islam and victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) championed by the right. The tweet, which has since been deleted, shows Sarsour coming out against Ali and Brigitte Gabriel, another anti-Islam activist, and deploring their existence as women. “I wish I could take their vaginas away — they don’t deserve to be women.” This statement in itself was seen as extremely insensitive of Sarsour given Ali’s openness about suffering from FGM. Granted, Ali is an admitted liar, especially in order to gain asylum to Holland, but it was foolish to make such a comment no matter their differing views.
Sarsour should have understood how detrimental to her own character this tweet would be. Surprisingly, she was able to blame both her youthful ignorance and right-wing blogs for the post when confronted at Dartmouth College where she gave a speech in the spring that was captured in this viral video. Sarsour then dismissed the student’s remarks by pointing out his identity as a white man, which drew applause from the left-leaning crowd. This portrays a lack of accountability needed in a leader of Sarsour’s stature. The constant deflection and defense behind victimhood show a lack of strength and self-reflection that would serve Sarsour greatly.
I don’t write this in order to heap myself on top of the pile-on, because I come from a place of good intent. Sarsour has done great work for Muslims in the United States, and there is bigotry towards our community that she has fought against. For years, she has been a target for right-wing media sites for her activism in the U.S., outspoken support for Palestinians, and critique of the Israeli government’s treatment of minorities. I sympathize with the plight Sarsour and her family goes through because of this focused hatred stemming from her public life.
I only write this in order to say I am exhausted by having to defend leaders who refuse to acknowledge their own shortcomings but would rather lash out in a self-serving manner. My message to Sarsour in light of the recent events is to stay strong through the tough times but to please do better. One of the main qualities of leadership is accountability, and I wish we could see that displayed more from activists like Sarsour. Although I disagree with her messaging, politics, and strategies, Linda is my sister in faith, and I support her. Even in the difficult times.

