OPINION:
Linda Sarsour, defender of all things Islam and hater of all things President Donald Trump, has apparently gone a bit too far with her radical rhetoric, and raised the eyebrows of even those on the left — of even some of her once-staunch supporters.
They’re distancing themselves from her. Not all, but some. Even people like Jake Tapper of CNN fame have weighed Sarsour’s activism and found it lacking in the sanity scale. Others, not so vocal, have nonetheless gone silent in their support of her. That’s not the same as outright rejection and condemneation of her radical Islamic beliefs — but for the far left, it’s a start.
Baby steps.
Sarsour lost them at “jihad,” it seems.
A few weeks back, Sarsour delivered a speech to the Annual Society of North America, ISNA, and said it’s the job of the Muslim community to stand opposed to the Trump administration, to fight his travel ban, to resist his administration’s policies.
She added this: “I hope that we, when we stand up to those that oppress our community, that Allah accepts from us that as form of jihad, that we are struggling against tyrant and rules not only abroad … but here in these United States of American where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.”
Jihad, by all common standards, is code for terrorist uprising and attack. But Sarsour and her defenders are trying to sell the word as a simple synonym for “struggle.”
That’s ridiculous.
Now, significantly enough, some on the left are having a “hey, wait a minute,” too.
Tapper, for example, recently took note of the Women’s March’s tweeted “happy birthday to the revoluationary #AssataShakur!” and reminded folks, in his own tweet: “Shakur is a cop-killer fugitive in Cuba.” The tie to Sarsour? She was an organizer of this January march.
Tapper then referenced the Chicago Dyke March — an event with the same sort of pro-Palestinian tone that Sarsour supports — and its participants’ demand that a Jewish flag carrier leave the event. As Salon wrote in late June, of the march: “Chicago’s ’Dyke March’ under fire for alleged anti-Semitism — Members of Chicago’s ’Dyke March’ asked Jewish activists to remove their Star of David by citing their anti-Zionism.”
Tapper tied Sarsour to the discriminatory overtones of this march as well.
He went on, in his tweet: “This, ugly sentiments from @lsarsour &@dykemarchchi … Any progressives out there condemning this?”
When Sarsour snarked back on Twitter — “@jaketapper joins the ranks of the alt-right to target me online” — Tapper then tweeted a link to Shakur’s FBI “Most Wanted” profile.
Others on the left haven’t spoken so openly in opposition to Sarsour’s recent “jihad” remarks, or her affiliations with radicalism — but their silence is just as telling.
As Breitart notes: Since Sarsour’s “jihad” speech, Sen. Bernie Sanders — whom she supported on the 2016 presidential campaign trail — has failed to speak in her favor; the New York Times, which previously covered her favorably, has failed to write about her; and political players who’ve previously gushed about her brilliance, like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Michael Blake and Rep. Keith Ellison, the Muslim co-chair of the Democratic National Committee, have gone dark in their Twitter feeds of mention of her goings-on.
This, after Ellison, in May, tweeted: “Silencing Linda Sarsour Is Wrong,” the headline of a Village Voice article he linked to in his message.
This isn’t exactly a bristling condemnation of Sarsour’s anti-American, anti-Trump, sharia-centered language and platforms. But it’s a start. It’s something to build on.
It’s a chink in the First Amendment armor Sarsour’s used to shield herself from criticism in recent months — the armor that’s given her carte blanche to call for mass Muslim rebellion and uprisings via barely coded language.
Those with discernment already know Sarsour for what she is — a deceiver and a shill for sharia, an anti-American activist with a large enough platform that merits alarm. If her leftist base now crumbles, she’s toast. And this is what freedom-loving Americans should seek.
Let the left learn and embrace the truths of Sarsour so that her voice will fade and disappear, along with her “jihad” messages of violence and mayhem that have no place in any modern, free society.
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