Following her now infamous call for “Jihad” against US President Donald Trump, other footage of Linda Sarsour speaking at the same conference has surfaced. And it also doesn’t sound too pretty.
“Every right-wing media outlet in the country. Every right-wing Zionist outlet in the country engaged in coordinated attacks against me to discredit my leadership”
Many (including me) will think this smacks of antisemitism. The notion of the media controlled by a select group of people who happen to be Jewish.. no sorry, Zionists. But she can’t be antisemitic – she raised all of the money to help repair a Jewish cemetery, right? Right?
I think Lee Smith’s theory – which he enunciated in this insightful piece about her Jihad comment – can equally apply here.
And that’s the issue, less the word itself but the context, which is the source of the rhetoric used to justify the mass murder of other Arabs, as well as Americans and Israelis and, across Europe and Asia and elsewhere, Jews and Christians and Hindus, etc. Is it possible that Linda Sarsour really didn’t understand the particular resonances of the word employed in the context of American politics? Of course she knew. She could’ve delivered a standard Trump-hating speech about immigration and Islamophobia. But comparing an American president to the Middle Eastern tyrants and oppressors like Bashar al-Assad who murder children from the sky is what distinguished her.
She used the word “jihad” deliberately, in order to split her audience. Anyone who criticized her use of extremist language would be painted as a bigot alongside those who really are bigots. Those who defended her right to use extremist language would be dragged along with those who really are extremists.
Lee Sarsour is no dummy. She is fully aware that the word “Zionist” is used to mask the antisemitic sentiments of so many – especially when used to describe control of the media, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory. I posit she knew by speaking of a “right-wing Zionist outlet” conspiracy, she would once again be met with accusations of antisemitism. I think this is what she wants – she can now accuse of us of being bigots and Islamophobes for even suggesting it!
I would add to what Lee said – besides enabling her to discredit her opponents, Sarsour seems to be in a litigious frame of mind.
Sounds to me like Sarsour feels untouchable, and would love to silence anyone who feels she is a fraud, antisemite, pushing Sharia law for all – or all of the above, based on her own pronouncements and actions.
