NORTH CAROLINA: First Muslim Woman to Win Elected Office in the State Flaunted Hijab as Campaign Logo

Nida Allam has been elected to office in North Carolina, and her campaign has prioritized the significance of her Democratic primary win in Durham county:

The campaign told CNN that officials looked back at previous North Carolina election data, county by county, and found no previous Muslim American women who had won elections to hold office in the state. “That’s when you realize — this hasn’t been done,” Allam told CNN.

Allam celebrates and promotes the hijab — an Islamic symbol of female oppression — and deems it bigotry to oppose it:

“My silhouette on my campaign logo is of my hijab because I wanted to be very unapologetic about that. These little girls were so excited. They said, ‘That’s you? Is that really a hijab? Is that a hijab that you use?’ They were so excited to see that kind of representation,” Allam said. “And it really solidified for me how important it was to for me to be running for office.”

This is what Nida Allam beams with pride over and wants Americans to accept:

(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to reduce of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.

If a woman does not cover, she is fair game to be assaulted:

(Quran 33:59) O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.

Allam was a signatory to a Muslim Affairs Council petition entitled We stand with Rep. Ilhan Omar and subtitled Community leaders from all over the US are supporting Rep. Ilhan Omar against bigotry.

Allam wants to see “better” education in schools, since in her view, opposing the hijab is rooted in “hatred” and “bigotry”:

“Allam said she wanted to run for commissioner because of the significant role the board has in allocating funding for schools. ‘This type of hatred and bigotry that my friends were lost to, I feel like there’s a lack of education, that also leads to that type of environment,’ she said.”

CAIR, which has been increasingly influential in North Carolina, not surprisingly supported Allam’s candidacy. Back in September, CAIR called on North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest to “withdraw from headlining an event featuring several controversial anti-Islamic speakers.” According to North Carolina Policy Watch, the roster of speakers for the “private conservative Christian event” included:

A pastor who calls the notion of a separation between church and state “cowardice” and those in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality “militant homofascists” bent on turning the U.S. into Sodom.

An author who has railed against Muslims as would-be conquerors and rapists and LGBTQ rights as a first step to America living under Sharia law.

A pastor and Republican politician who has asserted anyone not committed to the U.S. as an explicitly Judeo-Christian nation should leave.

No names were given and no fair coverage was provided about what message these individuals have actually delivered.

CAIR’s national communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, stated that “such ‘comments’ once regarded as limited to the political fringe – have sadly become more mainstream in American politics.” Then Hooper proceeded to blame (who else?) Donald Trump:

“Unfortunately with the election of Donald Trump we’ve seen the empowerment of white supremacy, xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant extremism around the country,” Hooper said. “That includes among lower level public officials who perhaps had these beliefs in the past but kept them private.”

North Carolina Policy Watch featured more “Muslim rights activists in North Carolina,” who stated that they were “pushing back….after the U.S. Education Department ordered the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies to revise its curriculum, saying it is advancing ‘ideological priorities’ and promoting ‘the positive aspects of Islam’ and is in danger of losing its federal grant funding.”

The alliance between Nida Allam, CAIR, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and her unwavering support for Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib should be matters of concern.

“North Carolina woman says she’s first Muslim American woman to win elected office in the state,” by Jessica Campisi, CNN, March 5, 2020:

(CNN)Nida Allam made history on Tuesday night when she became the first Muslim American woman to be elected to office in North Carolina, her campaign says.

Allam, who ran as a Democrat, was one of five women to win the party’s primary for the Durham County Board of Commissioners’ five seats, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. She finished fourth with 39,523 votes.

Since there are no Republican candidates running in the general election, Allam and the four other candidates will presumptively take office in November.

“People of Durham you made history last night by electing me as the FIRST Muslim Woman to serve the state of North Carolina,” Allam tweeted Wednesday morning. “I can’t even express how grateful I am to have earned your trust and support.”

The campaign told CNN that officials looked back at previous North Carolina election data, county by county, and found no previous Muslim American women who had won elections to hold office in the state.

“That’s when you realize — this hasn’t been done,” Allam told CNN.

Muslim advocacy groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Muslim Advocates, celebrated the win.
“She succeeded where others weren’t able to break through that glass ceiling,” Robert McCaw, the council’s Government Affairs Department director, told CNN.

Allam’s campaign priorities include a $15 minimum wage for county workers, boosting mental health services in schools and investing in businesses run by women and people of color, according to her website….