A Muslim organizer of the Women's March is under attack from Islamophobic trolls

By Nidhi Prakash  |  January 23, 2017 | 8:15pm
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In the days after the historic Women’s March on Washington, one of the leaders of the protest is being subjected to a torrent of Islamophobic abuse online.

Linda Sarsour is one of the four co-chairs who organized the march, along with Carmen Perez, Tamika Mallory, and Bob Bland. Sarsour is Palestinian-American, from Brooklyn, and a Muslim woman who has stepped forward to demonstrate public leadership in a climate of escalating Islamophobic rhetoric. She’s a civil rights activist and the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She has a track record as a well-respected community organizer.

But to Islamophobic trolls on Twitter, she’s an easy target. She’s been labeled a “Sharia promoter” and a “supporter of terrorism.” On Monday, as the scale of the marches across the country became clear, Sarsour bore some brunt of the backlash from angry abuse rolled out online:

But Monday saw the hashtag #IMarchWithLinda emerge on Twitter, with women from across the country and across faiths sending messages of solidarity with Sarsour, recognizing her as a feminist leader and defending her right to be heard:

Sarsour does not seem rattled by the intimidation.

“When the opposition including islamophobes are flooding your timeline with hate—you know you did something right. #womensmarch” she wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

I’ve reached out to Sarsour for further comment and will update this post if I hear back.

 
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