Biden Campaign Disavows Linda Sarsour’s Appearance at Democratic National Convention

How have Islamists managed to position themselves as representative of Muslim Americans?

After Linda Sarsour appeared on an official panel at the Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden’s campaign issued a statement distancing the candidate from the Islamist activist who has a long history of making antisemitic comments and supporting other antisemites.

Sarsour, who was a campaign surrogate for Bernie Sanders, appeared on a panel hosted by the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly, one of the side councils and caucuses of the convention.

A spokesperson for Biden said that Sarsour “has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.”  Addressing Sarsour’s support of the antisemitic Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, Biden’s campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement, “Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform.”

The BDS movement falls under the U.S. State Department’s (and 34 other countries’) definition of antisemitism.

Last year, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) joined many other prominent Left-wing groups in withdrawing their support for Sarsour’s Women’s March organization. The move was made after Sarsour’s colleague, Women’s March co-founder Tamilka Mallory, refused to condemn Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic hate preacher who leads the Nation of Islam organization.

Sarsour has been a Farrakhan fan for years and has yet to condemn his endless hate. Mallory has attended a number of Nation of Islam events, had photo ops with Farrakhan and referred to him as the GOAT (Great of All Time).

Mallory also spoke at the Democratic convention at an event hosted by the Black Caucus, although she received no similar disavowal from the Biden campaign.

Addressing both Sarsour’s and Mallory’s official appearances at the convention, a Democratic official told The Daily Beast, “The caucus and council chairs come up with their own programming and select their own speakers.”

Sarsour is also a supporter of

• radical Islamists (she calls radical Islamist preacher Siraj Wahhaj her “mentor, motivator and encourager”)
• radical Islamist causes (she is a regular speaker and fundraiser for CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other Islamist groups tied to terror-funding)
• Islamist terrorists (she teamed up with Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted for her involvement in a terror bombing in Israel that killed two students. Sarsour posed for a picture with Salah Sarsour, who was jailed in Israel for working with Hamas)
• sharia law (an Islamic legal system with barbaric corporal punishments that is discriminatory against women and non-Muslims)

Sarsour has also railed against women with whom she disagrees by saying, “I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.” She has been accused of facilitating the sexual assault of another woman.

Yet from the reaction of her fellow Islamists to her snub by the Biden campaign, one would think that Biden’s issue with Sarsour was either her “support for Palestinian human rights” or just plain Islamophobia.

A statement by CAIR said,”Our sister Linda Sarsour is an outspoken advocate of justice for all, including the Jewish community. Smearing her and other American Muslims as anti-Semitic for supporting Palestinian human rights is predictable, despicable and unacceptable. Our political leaders must stop doing it.”

The Arab American Institute accused the Biden campaign of “Arab baiting,” which they termed “a decades old tactic rooted in bigotry & racism.”

The institute further said that “historically, [Arab baiting was] used as a weapon to attack political opponents & disenfranchise #ArabAmericans, those who engage in Arab baiting seek to exclude us from the political process to avoid substantive debate on issues of concern, particularly advocacy for justice for #Palestine.”

Hatem Bazian — chairman of American Muslims for Palestine (which has a history of employing terrorist financiers) and founder of Students for Justice in Palestine (essentially Hamas’ student wing on U.S. college campuses) – tweeted, “Islamophobia is Silencing Muslim Voices.”

CAIR’s Zahra Billoo, who has her own long history of making antisemitic and anti-American remarks, tweeted out a sad headline from the Middle East Eye, which stated, “Biden campaign’s attacks on Linda Sarsour alienates Muslim voters, activists say.”

The tweet was sarcastically answered by @ZnzAllen, who noted, “So calling out Sarsour’s Jew hatred alienates Muslim voters. I guess that says something about Muslim voters.”

Sarsour, for her part, answered the Biden snub with a barely-veiled threat:

.@AndrewBatesNC, just came here to remind you that you need a coalition to defeat Donald Trump and that Muslim Americans are an important voter bloc in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania & I know a little something about how to organize them.

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) August 19, 2020

Meanwhile, the Democrat party was taking flack for featuring Islamic preacher Nomani Hussain as part of an interfaith service. Hussain is a Hajj scholar for Qalam Institute.

The institute features a course called “The Prophetic  Code,” which warns Muslims to strive for “cleanliness” and “purity” so that they “do not resemble the Jews.”

Qalam Institute’s officials have also advocated for the use of female sex slaves and the killing of adulterers and incite hatred against Jews and other non-Muslims.

Whether or not the appearance of Sarsour or Hussain at the Democratic National Convention happened under the radar of the DNC or not, it has been far too long that Islamists have been featured in the public eye as representative of the American Muslims.

Yet, it is not surprising. Today’s climate of identity politics has allowed Islamists to leverage the spotlight as their message of victimhood fits in perfectly with all the other intersectional players claiming the same.

COLUMN BY

Meira Svirsky

EDITORS NOTE: This Clarion Project column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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