User:Dogeatsdog/Linda Sarsour

Linda Sarsour, also known as Every Islamophobe's Worst Nightmare, is an American civil rights activist. Her progressive stance of actively partaking in 2017 Women's March, Black Lives Matter movement, and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has garnered strong animosity and false accusations among right wing media that need in depth debunking. Her intersectionality as Palestinian Muslim feminist is a juicy target for numerous political factions, ranging from alt-rights, alt-lites, antifeminists, pro-lifers, Republicans, conservatives,  Zionists, Muslim fundies, Islamists, white supremacists, "classical liberals", useful idiots, and above all else, islamophobes. While she's fighting against like 534,329,432 conservative figures, the beef with Ayaan Hirsi Ali is particularly noteworthy for competition of who represents the true feminist cause.

Anti-semite?
For long, Linda has been accused of her apparent anti-semitism or lack of awareness thereof. This is extremely convenient charge as she's a second-gen immigrant from Palestine, which makes the issue of Israel and Zionism naturally a hot-headed one. The charge has been directed by a wide range of political spectrums, from relatively credible criticism by progressive / center-left Jewish outlets such as Forward and Haaretz, to less sincere nitpicking by the pro-Israeli Democrats, to the outright strawman and batshit insanity by the hard-right Zionists and other conservative political pundits.

The more genuine concern comes from her (and other leading figures of Women's March such as Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez) association with the Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been batshit insane in his views of white people, black supremacism and antisemitism. This came to light in early-2018, led to a controversy that shook up the cohesion and consistency of Women's March movement. Sarsour and the other Women's March leaders repeatedly made it clear that they don't condone the views held by Farrakhan. They seem to take a stance of simultaneously fighting against all sorts of bigotry and racism espoused by Farrakhan, and recognizing the legacy of NOI and its successive leaders at the same time. The more nuanced discussion should possibly be made in light of NOI's formidable role in the African-American civil rights movement, such as the promotion of unity and discipline. There's also an issue of Farrakhan being "too big to fail" due to his sheer influence upon the African-American community, which even Obama had to struggle previously.

The relatively debatable issue comes from her stance on anti-semitism which seems to abide by the prejudice plus power discourse:

However, it should be noted that above examples do not indicate the antisemitic view per se held by Linda. It shouldn't overshadow the fact that she has been active on solidarity with Jewish movements, and painting her as antisemite or accusing her as such is nothing but false accusation or ad-hominem based on strawman.