Following my previous posts highlighting some extremely problematic views expressed by Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers of the Women’s march and darling of progressives, more disturbing information has come to my attention, thanks to some great research by activist Rachel Steinmetz.
As an Israeli who faces terrorism every day, I understand the horror of 9/11 on a soul level. I know my American friends, especially those in New York who were witness to the most heinous attack on American soil are still reeling from the trauma. Not Linda Sarsour, who frequently touts to the press and national audience how she’s a typical New Yorker from Brooklyn (a “homegirl in a hijab”, if you will). I have never heard another New Yorker speak as dispassionately about 9/11 as Linda did when addressing an all-Muslim audience in 2012 at CAIR Arizona. She shared her experiences that helped pave the way for her career as a Muslim activist, which was triggered by 9/11. In Linda’s words, folks:
Note how she begins with “I know many of you may be tired of hearing about 9/11,” which seems to be an acknowledgment that many of her audience not only are not moved by what happened on that fateful day, but are sick of hearing about it. She then continues to speak about 9/11 from her point of view as a Muslim, with not even a word of sympathy for the real victims of the terror attacks that day, nor any reflections from her as an American citizen. For her, that day seems only about the anxiety and apprehension of Muslims (including herself), and how it spurred her to fight for their rights. Yet even when speaking as a Muslim, there is no acknowledgement of the role of radical Islam.
It speaks volumes that to a Muslim audience, she feels no need to talk about the real victims of 9/11, nor Islamic terrorism. It is as if neither exists.
FYI, a friend of mine who spends alot of time with 9/11 victims very much doubts Sarsour’s story that when she came home on 9/11, her mom was too scared to wear a hijab – nobody knew what was going on that day and it hadn’t been pinned on Muslims.
But there’s more on this darling of advocates of women’s rights. Here she speaks in favor or arranged marriages, and tells of how she got permission to work from her husband – in writing.
Linda made herself clear: she wanted to go to college, get a job, and have enough independence to feel like her own person. And when he agreed to her terms, she asked to get it in writing.
Here she talks of feeling duplicitous regarding how she portrays the plight of women to normal Americans vs when talking to her own community, as well as makes a disturbing admission about how domestic abuse situations are handled.
”Sometimes I feel like I am two people,” said Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American and community activist. ”To mainstream Americans, I am always talking about my culture and trying to show women are not oppressed, but to my people in the community, I am progressive.”
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Sarsour admits, though, that sometimes it is her internal quest to prove she can be both progressive and traditional that causes her to feel duplicitous: The women at the center teach an ”empowerment” seminar that encourages Muslim women to take more time out for themselves, but the classes are disguised as ”social councils” so as not to offend the imams or men in the community.
”We don’t want a backlash and for men to think we are telling them to leave their husbands,” said Sarsour.
Recently the center helped sponsor a domestic abuse seminar, which 65 Muslim men attended. ”But it would have to be an extreme case for us to call the police on a Muslim man,” she admits, adding that domestic abuse issues are often worked out through counseling with the imam.
Meanwhile, there’s a whole lot more on her problematic views on terrorism and radical Islam here.
