Leading House Democrats announced they will offer a resolution tomorrow condemning antisemitism in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest remarks on Israel, pissing off a number of people, including Linda Sarsour, who posted this diatribe in response:
Sarsour is predictably playing identity politics again, referring to Nancy Pelosi as a white feminist. Let me remind Sarsour that she has also admitted to being white (sans hijab), and only now says she isn’t because it is more beneficial to her. Although you can’t call her a feminist.
The next part is just as laughable – accusing Pelosi of “doing the dirty work of powerful white men” and stroking their egos because “God forbid the men are upset.” Sounds like someone else we know.
It is still uncommon among Muslims, even in New York, for women to take a leading role in political activities. Ms. Atweh, for instance, joined forces with a group of wealthier, more visibly powerful men to found the Arab American Association. By her own admission, Ms. Sarsour, too, has struggled with this untraditional role. She said she had an arrangement with her husband that allowed her to pursue her work as long as he remained anonymously in the background.
She’s also been upholding the patriarchy in her own community:
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.
Besides these points, it seems Sarsour has a real issue with a resolution condemning antisemitism, which doesn’t also condemn “other forms of bigotry.” However
A draft of the resolution does not rebuke Omar, a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress. But it sets out the history of anti-Semitism and bigotry in America, including anti-Jewish tropes about divided loyalties. The document also rejects bigotry directed against Muslims after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
So why does Sarsour feel the need to object to it? Surely for someone who claims to be against antisemitism, this resolution should be inoffensive?
But no. Because her friend, using the same talking points as she does, is the one who prompted it. And that is something this homegirl in a hijab can’t tolerate.
