Arab American Association of New York Sarsour's early activism included advocating for the civil rights of
American Muslims following the
September 11 attacks. Shortly before 9/11, Basemah Atweh, a relative and founder of the Arab American Association of New York, asked Sarsour to volunteer for the organization. Atweh, who held a prominent political role uncommon for a Muslim woman, became Sarsour's mentor. When Sarsour and Atweh were returning from the 2005 gala opening of the
Arab American National Museum in
Dearborn, Michigan, their car was struck by a tractor-trailer. Atweh died of her injuries, and two other passengers suffered from broken bones. Sarsour, who was driving, was not seriously injured. She returned to work immediately, saying of Atweh, "This is where she wanted me to be". She was named to succeed Atweh as executive director of the association at age 25. Over the next several years she expanded the scope of the organization, building its budget from $50,000 to $700,000 annually. Sarsour initially gained attention for protesting
police surveillance of American Muslims. As director of the Arab American Association of New York, she advocated for passage of the Community Safety Act in New York, which created an independent office to review police policy and widen the definition of bias-based profiling in the state. She and the organization pressed for the law after instances of what they saw as biased policing in local neighborhoods, and it passed over the objections of then-Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and then-Police Chief
Raymond W. Kelly. Sarsour also played a part in the successful campaign to have
Islamic holidays recognized in New York City's public schools, which started observing
Eid al-Adha and
Eid al-Fitr in 2015. According to a 2017 article in
The New York Times, Sarsour "has tackled issues like
immigration policy,
mass incarceration,
stop-and-frisk and the
New York City Police Department's spying operations on Muslims — all of which have largely inured her to hate-tinged criticism". Sarsour has been hailed by some as a symbol of empowerment and "shattering stereotypes of Muslim women". In a dual interview with Iranian feminist activist
Masih Alinejad about the practice of
veiling, Sarsour elaborated on her views that the hijab is a spiritual act and not a symbol of oppression, and stressed the Islamophobia experienced by hijabi women in the West. Alinejad accused Sarsour of double standards, saying that Western Muslims in general, and Sarsour in particular, often fail to condemn compulsory hijab in the Middle East. Alinejad also said that if Sarsour is concerned with women's rights, she can not use the hijab "which is the most visible symbol of oppression in the Middle East" as a symbol of resistance.
Black Lives Matter Following the
shooting of Michael Brown, Sarsour helped to organize
Black Lives Matter protests. Sarsour helped form "Muslims for Ferguson", and she traveled to Ferguson with other activists in 2014. She has continued to work extensively with BLM ever since. Sarsour became a regular attendee at Black Lives Matter demonstrations as well as a frequent television commentator on
feminism.
Political party involvement Sarsour is a member of the
Democratic Socialists of America. In 2016, she ran for a position as a County Committee member with the
Democratic Party of Kings County, New York. She placed third. She has spoken about her activism in the context of building a
progressive movement in the United States, and has been praised by liberal politicians and activists. In 2012, during the
presidency of Barack Obama, the
White House recognized Sarsour as a Champion of Change. Sarsour was a surrogate for U.S. Senator
Bernie Sanders during his
2016 presidential campaign. During the
2020 Democratic National Convention, Sarsour spoke on a virtual panel of the Muslim Delegates and Allies subcommittee, saying, "The Democratic Party is not perfect, but it is absolutely our party this moment". After an edited clip of her comments was shared on conservative websites and by pro–
Donald Trump social media accounts, a spokesperson for
Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign disavowed Sarsour, saying she had no role in the campaign.
Women's March leadership 2017 Women's March . Teresa Shook and
Bob Bland, organizers of the
2017 Women's March, recruited Sarsour as co-chair of the event, to be held one day after
Donald Trump's inauguration. According to Taylor Gee of
Politico, Sarsour had by then become the controversial "face of the resistance" to Trump, adding "For Sarsour, Trump's election came after years of standing up for people he had maligned—not just women, but Muslims, immigrants and black Americans, too. Her ties with activists from around the country helped her galvanize different groups during the disorienting period following the election". Sarsour actively opposed the
Trump administration's ban on travelers from several
Muslim-majority countries and was named
lead plaintiff in a legal challenge brought by the
Council on American–Islamic Relations. In
Sarsour v. Trump, the plaintiffs argued that the travel ban must be suspended because it existed only to keep Muslims out of the United States.
Melissa Harris-Perry writes that Sarsour was "the most reliable target of public vitriol" of the 2017 Women's March leaders over the following year. Following her leadership role in the Women's March, Sarsour was targeted by violent threats on
social media, some from organizations with links to the Russian government, and personal attacks by conservative media outlets, including false reports that she supported the militant
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and advocated imposing
Islamic law in the United States. She stated that, while the march was a high point in her career, the media attacks that followed caused her to fear for her safety. Supporters used the Twitter hashtag
#IMarchWithLinda, including
Sharon Brous of the
National Council of Jewish Women, who worked with Sarsour in organizing the 2017 Women's March, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Sarsour, along with her three co-chairs, was named as one of
Time magazine's "
100 Most Influential People" after the January march. Sarsour was a co-chairwoman of the 2017
Day Without a Woman strike and protest, organized to mark
International Women's Day. During a demonstration outside
Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan, she was arrested along with other leaders of the January Women's March, including Bland,
Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez. She has organized and participated in other acts of
civil disobedience in protest of the Trump administration's actions, such as ending the
DACA program shielding young immigrants from deportation, the
Trump administration family separation policy for immigrants, and the nomination of
Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In a 2017 speech before the
Islamic Society of North America, Sarsour said that people should "stand up" to Trump, as she deemed his administration oppressive, and that such actions would constitute a
jihad. She recounted a story from
Islamic scripture in which
Muhammad says, "A word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader, that is the best form of jihad." Several conservative media outlets and personalities accused her of calling for violence against the president by using the word jihad. Sarsour and other commentators rejected this interpretation, citing her commitment to
nonviolent activism and the fact that "jihad" does not inherently refer to violent action. Sarsour also said that she is not the sort of person who would call for violence against the president. In a
Washington Post op-ed she wrote that the term
jihad has been misused by both right-wing and Muslim extremists and called her use of the term "legitimate yet widely misunderstood." Some on social media criticized Sarsour for using the term
jihad since the general public associates it with violence, while others defended her choice of words.
2019 Women's March In September 2018, Sarsour announced that she would lead the
2019 Women's March on Washington along with
Tamika Mallory,
Bob Bland, and
Carmen Perez. Later that year, Sarsour and Mallory became the focus of a controversy over their perceived refusal to clearly condemn
Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan, whose rhetoric has been deemed antisemitic and homophobic by the
Southern Poverty Law Center and the
Anti-Defamation League. In November 2018, Teresa Shook, the march's founder, called for Sarsour and her fellow co-chairs to step down, accusing them of having "allowed anti-Semitism, anti-
LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs." Sarsour refused, suggesting the criticism of her was due to her support for BDS and that criticism of Mallory was due to racism. She later apologized to supporters of the march, expressing regret that she and Mallory did not "make their commitment to combating antisemitism clear." She also apologized to the March's LGBTQ and Jewish members, saying that she valued them and would "fight" for them. Sarsour stepped down from the Women's March organization in September 2019 along with
Bob Bland and
Tamika Mallory.
Stance on Israeli–Palestinian conflict Haaretz has called Sarsour one of the most widely known Palestinian American women for her advocacy on behalf of Palestinians in the
Israeli-occupied territories, noting that some on the center and right consider her a polarizing figure due to her
anti-Zionist activism. She has said she supports a
one-state solution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict but believes in
Israel's right to exist and does not support either
Hamas or the
Palestinian Authority. She has dismissed smears circulated on social media and conservative websites that she has ties to Hamas, calling them "
fake news". Sarsour has said members of her extended family in the Israeli-occupied territories have been arrested and jailed on accusations of supporting Hamas, but denied having contact with any radical Muslim groups. She has said she would like Israelis and Palestinians to coexist peacefully and justly. According to the
Brooklyn Eagle, Sarsour's support for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, her view that Israel has a right to exist, and her relationship with
Bill de Blasio have garnered her criticism from some
Islamists. campaign against Israel has provoked criticism. (Protest against Israel's
Gaza Blockade and attack on humanitarian
flotilla in
Melbourne, 5 June 2010.) Sarsour told
Haaretz that she is and always will be a critic of Israel and fully supports BDS. Sunaina Maira has described Sarsour's advocacy for BDS as an element of her feminist politics. In a March 2017 interview with
The Nation, Sarsour opined that those who support and do not criticize the state of Israel cannot be part of the feminist movement; she believes such people ignore the rights of Palestinian women. Sarsour has criticized progressive Zionists. At a conference of
American Muslims for Palestine, she asked, "how can you be against white supremacy in America" while supporting Israel, saying that Israel is "built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else". She later clarified that she was referring to Israel's
Jewish nation-state law.
Relations with Jewish-American advocacy groups Sarsour has been criticized by
American conservatives and pro-Israel Democrats, along with some Zionist activists for her stance on Middle Eastern politics, including her support for BDS against Israel.
The Guardian wrote that Sarsour "has been a frequent target of pro-Israel pressure organisations". According to an investigation by
Haaretz, a private Israeli intelligence firm spied on Sarsour and her family in an attempt to collect damaging information. A dossier was shared with the
Act.IL group, which used the material to dissuade U.S. universities from allowing Sarsour to speak on campus. Sarsour has worked with left-wing Jewish groups including
Jewish Voice for Peace and
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. According to
Haaretz, mainstream Jewish organizations "long held her at arms' length" due to her criticism of Israel and her support for the BDS movement. According to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, progressive Jews are willing to ignore her anti-Zionism whereas right-wing Jews and some centrist Jews are not. Two directors of the U.S.-based Jewish NGO the
Anti-Defamation League, along with the president of the
Zionist Organization of America, have criticized her stance on Israel; the ADL's director,
Jonathan Greenblatt, has said that Sarsour's support of BDS inspires and increases antisemitism. A
Facebook post in which she defended Representative-elect
Ilhan Omar by attributing criticism of her support for BDS to "folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech" led to the
American Jewish Committee accusing Sarsour of drawing on
antisemitic tropes. Sarsour has disputed accusations of antisemitism and says that her criticism of the state of Israel has been wrongly conflated with antipathy for Jews. In late January 2019, Sarsour drew criticism for not mentioning Jews in her
International Holocaust Remembrance Day statement, with some commentators noting that in 2017 she had called President Trump antisemitic for not mentioning Jews in his own Holocaust Remembrance Day statement.
CUNY commencement speech When Sarsour was selected to deliver a
commencement speech at the
City University of New York (CUNY) in June 2017, there was strong opposition from some conservatives.
Dov Hikind, then a
Democratic Party state assemblyman in New York, sent then-Governor
Andrew Cuomo a letter objecting to the choice, signed by 100
Holocaust survivors. His objection was based on Sarsour's previously having spoken alongside
Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted by an
Israeli court for taking part in
a bombing that killed two civilians in 1969. Sarsour said that she had nothing to apologize for and questioned the integrity of Odeh's conviction. She ascribed the critical reaction to her speech to her prominent role as an organizer for the
2017 Women's March. The
university chancellor, the dean of the college, and a group of professors defended Sarsour's right to speak, as did some Jewish groups, including
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. A group of prominent left-leaning Jews signed an open letter condemning attacks on her and promising to work alongside her for the sake of justice. Jonathan Greenblatt of the
Anti-Defamation League defended Sarsour's
First Amendment right despite opposing her views on Israel. A rally in support of Sarsour took place in front of
New York City Hall. Constitutional scholar Fred Smith Jr. tied the controversy to broader disputes over
freedom of speech on college campuses.
Reaction to 2023 Hamas attack, Gaza war In 2023, in response to the
October 7 attacks and ensuing
Gaza war, Sarsour cautioned pro-Palestinian demonstrators against tearing down pro-Israel posters showing the faces of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas. In a statement some pro-Israel activists called antisemitic, she said, "There are provocateurs all across the city and what they are waiting for you to do is to waste your energy ripping down their little posters". Sarsour defended her comments, saying they had been taken out of context in order to discredit the pro-Palestinian cause. She also said that Palestinian Americans were being unfairly accused of antisemitism solely because of their ethnicity.
Comments about Ayaan Hirsi Ali In 2011, in reference to
Somali-born activist
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a noted
critic of Islam, and
Brigitte Gabriel, a conservative activist and leader of the lobbying group
ACT! for America, Sarsour tweeted, "She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away - they don't deserve to be women." She had debated both women on radio or television and said the dispute centered on Ali and Gabriel's promotion of the idea that Islam is
misogynistic. In 2017, Sarsour told
The Washington Post that the tweet (then already deleted) was "stupid" and that she did not remember writing it. Later that year, an exchange between Sarsour and a student activist at
Dartmouth College in which she was asked about the tweet circulated widely on social media. Sarsour noted that the question had been posed by a "white man" at an event celebrating
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and her words garnered criticism.
Fundraising efforts After a Jewish cemetery in
St. Louis was vandalized in an apparent anti-Semitic incident in February 2017, Sarsour worked with other Muslim activists to launch a
crowdfunding campaign to raise money for repair and restoration work. Among other recipients of funds from the effort was a Colorado Jewish cemetery listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The project generated some controversy after New York assemblyman
Dov Hikind accused Sarsour of withholding the funds. Sarsour characterized the controversy as the work of "
alt-right Zionists." Sarsour's request for donations to
Hurricane Harvey relief efforts was criticized by her conservative opponents; according to Alexander Nazaryan of
Newsweek, this was indicative of the right wing's increasing antipathy for Sarsour. MPower Change, a group Sarsour co-founded, has also worked to raise money for the victims of the 2018
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, which some progressive supporters of Sarsour have pointed to along with the St. Louis cemetery fundraising campaign in defending her against accusations of anti-Semitism. == Personal life ==