NYU Invites Anti-Semitic Speakers to Promote Progressive Agenda
As published in the Observer
NYU recently invited Women’s March co-founder, Linda Sarsour, to discuss migration, refugees and sanctuary at a March Skirball Talks, a program which, according to the school, brings “visionaries from the worlds of politics, the arts, sciences, academia and more” to campus.
NYU seems to have a penchant for welcoming anti-Semitic speakers to campus. Last October, its Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, a co-sponsor of the Sarsour talk, held an event, “Panel Discussion: The Assault on the Right to Boycott,” which attempted to legitimize the boycotting of Israel. Jasbir Puar, a Rutgers queer theorist professor, was one of the featured participants. Her stock-in-trade is libeling Israel as a nation that harvests Palestinian organs and intentionally maims and stunts Palestinians to permanently debilitate and disable them.
Like Puar, Sarsour is not bashful about her racism. She used her social media to share an article accusing the Jewish community of waging a “profound war on black people.” Appalled by this slur, Blues singer/writer Muddy Waters’ daughter, Mercy Morganfield, previously an ally of Sarsour and former head of the Women’s March D.C. chapter responded, “Linda Sarsour is an anti-Semite… Writing that Jewish people are waging war on black people is an attack. It is vicious. It is vile. And it is not true.”
At the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Fall 2018 convention, Sarsour blasted an Anti-Defamation League (ADL)-sponsored training program bringing American police officials to Israel to learn defense tactics against terrorism. She blamed Jews for promoting police violence against unarmed blacks.
“That’s so horrific,” commented Nisi Jacobs, co-founder of Women4All, which broke away from the Women’s March due to Sarsour’s and co-chair Tamika Mallory’s anti-Semitism. “It’s not only anti-Semitic, it’s bullshit,” Jacobs said. “She’s like a horrible guru that just lies because she has her own agenda.”
At the same ISNA convention, Sarsour admonished her Muslim audience not to “humanize” Israelis. She also declared, “I am an unapologetic pro-BDS, one-state solution supporting resistance supporter.” Her endorsement of BDS and one state singles out only one nation in the world—the Jewish state—for elimination, a view recognized as anti-Semitic by the U.S. State Department and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance declaration signed by 31 nations.
It’s worth remembering that in 2017, Sarsour embraced Rasmea Odeh, a convicted Palestinian terrorist and accomplice to the slaughter of two Jewish students, as well as the injuring of nine others, in an Israel supermarket bombing. At a public gathering, she proclaimed that she was “honored and privileged… to be on this stage with Rasmea.” Apparently, she believes lethal violence is acceptable “resistance.”
Sarsour masquerades as a feminist, but insists that there is no place in the women’s movement for supporters of Israel. She dissembles when confronted with her advocacy of Sharia law, which demeans, degrades and dehumanizes women and sanctions wife-beating, forced marriages, honor killings and mutilation. Sarsour disingenuously claims that her fellow liberals simply don’t understand its true meaning.
NYU considers her a “visionary.” Indeed! Sarsour hides behind her supposed feminism to promote her racist vision.
Just days ago, Sarsour expressed her support for notorious Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Muslim Democratic congresswomen who has publicly and repeatedly voiced anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish American dual loyalty and undue influence.
Progressive institutions like NYU ignore Sarsour’s trafficking in hate because, as a vocal Palestinian-American and Muslim, she is a useful tool in the promotion of a version of social justice that glorifies “victim groups” bound together solely by their self-identity as powerless and oppressed. Self-described “resistance supporter,” Linda Sarsour’s anti-Semitism and support for terrorism and Sharia Law are conveniently ignored.
As a true intersectional Palestinian activist, Sarsour embraces other left-wing groups and policies so popular at NYU. She’s an outspoken advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement, has protested with the environmentalists and Native Americans against the domestic oil industry and supports illegal immigration.
NYU promotes Sarsour as a “racial justice and civil rights activist” known for her efforts “to build bridges across racial, ethnic, and faith communities.” This flies in the face of reality! The truth is the administration and faculty invite anti-Semites like Sarsour and Puar to promote NYU’s progressive political agenda and left-wing ideology. It’s all about politics, not education.
To quote George Orwell, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
