Supporters of Linda Sarsour, a co-chair of the Women's March, have been shrugging off Ms. Sarsour's call for "jihad" against President Trump, made in a speech before the Islamic Society of North America.
C'mon, they say, jihad just means "mental struggle," and what the heck is wrong with calling for mental struggle "in front of a tyrant or leader”?
But as Ben Shapiro points out, while Ms. Sarsour by no means called for assassination, we should not be so quick to dismiss her words as hyperbole:
Sarsour was playing a double game, naturally: She used the word “jihad” because she knew it would generate headlines and because she knew that “jihad” means more than any mere mental struggle.
In fact, Sarsour led off her speech by paying tribute to Siraj Wajjah, her “favorite person in the room.” Wajjah was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a witness on behalf of the Blind Sheikh terrorist, and a man who has repeatedly embraced the notion of violent jihad.
Sarsour, too, explicitly rejected assimilation. Sarsour is also friends with Islamist terrorist Rasmeah Odeh, took a picture with former Hamas operative Salah Sarsour, and brags about relatives in prison in Israel.
Sarsour’s two-faced approach to “Islamophobia” demonstrates her extremism. While she complains in the pages of the Washington Post about “attacks from xenophobes and the conservative media,” she was far more explicit on Twitter about her perceived enemies: “white supremacists & right wing Zionists,” whom she said were even paying moderate Muslims who oppose Sarsour’s radicalism.
“Zionist” is the ultimate insult in the Sarsour pantheon: She has stated in the past that Zionists cannot be feminists. She has also stated that anti-radical Islamic activists such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of Islamic female genital mutilation, should have their vaginas removed. Sarsour is a big fan, however, of Saudi Arabia’s maternity-leave policies, even if women aren’t allowed to drive.
Ms. Sarsour, who also advocates for Sharia law in the U.S., has emerged as a darling of left-liberal circles. That feminists are among these admirers indicates the trendiness and intellectual vacuity that is contemporary movement feminism.