We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance

<blockquote> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1612040791i/30785378._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="225" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Hey! <b><u><a href="https://youtu.be/reQZxplRr-k" rel="nofollow noopener">January 2021 Reading Vlog</a></u></b> is up!!</blockquote><b> <u>The Written Review</u> </b><blockquote> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1614283786i/30925790._SY540_.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </blockquote>Linda Sarsour - the organizer behind the Women's March (a worldwide protest in 2017 against the election of Donald Trump) has been <b>making waves in her community </b>for years.<br><br>She's a strong political activist and never shied away from speaking her truth - that the right to peace, justice and equality should be just that, <b> <u>a fundamental right.</u> </b><br><br>In her memoir, she chronicles her unique childhood and what sparked <b>her journey into activism </b>as a Muslim American. <br><br>She discusses her accomplishments through various acts of activism and the very real and tangible results that came from it. <br><br>She explains the purpose of the Women's March and how she was able to achieve that amazing turnout...and <b>why she continues to fight to this day.</b><br><br>In light of recent events...more people NEED to read this book. Seriously.<br><br>I loved Linda's perspective and how she systematically evaluates injustices and fights to make a difference.<br><br>I particularly loved reading about how her childhood formed her passion and how she uses that passion to fuel herself to this day.<br><br><b>I really, really recommend this book!</b><br><br><a href="http://bit.ly/33ii2CT" rel="nofollow noopener">YouTube</a> | <a href="http://www.mirandareads.com" rel="nofollow noopener">Blog</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/miranda_reads/?hl=en" rel="nofollow noopener">Instagram</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Miranda_Reads" rel="nofollow noopener">Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mirandareads1" rel="nofollow noopener">Facebook</a> | Snapchat @miranda_reads

Harry Belafonte, who wrote the foreword, seems to be playing both sides of the fence. <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/belafontes-retraction-remarks-jews-causes-new-flap" rel="nofollow noopener">CNN</a>. I put it down to hyperbole and misinformation. I don't comment on American politics <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="8a5602f7-dcae-468c-b2fc-e0502d92195f" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="8a5602f7-dcae-468c-b2fc-e0502d92195f">and I delete ALL comments that are to do with it as I have friends who are for the present setup and some who are agin it and I'm not an American </label>. It would be hard to do anything but love someone who sang <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/harry-belafonte/the-banana-boat-song-day-o" rel="nofollow noopener">Daaaaay-O,</a> daaaaay-O, daylight come and me wan' go home. Come Mr. Tallyman, tally me banana, daylight come and me wan' go home. Everyone got an earworm now? :-)<br />____________________<br /><br />We are not supposed to write about the author but about the book in reviews, but when it is an autobiography and the subject of course, is the author, then writing about the author is inevitable in any review of the book. The first thing about the book is the promotion, it is disingenuous at best. <br /><br />The promotion of this book is about what a stellar light the author is as a founder of the Women's March - but it isn't mentioned that she (and two others) were <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/16/politics/womens-march-board-members-leaving/index.html" rel="nofollow noopener"> forced to resign</a> from the Board amid accusations of anti-Semitism which was in part because of their close association with <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/nation-of-islam-farrakhan-in-his-own-words" rel="nofollow noopener">Louis Farrakhan</a> founder of the Nation of Islam, <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="7b999d19-70a6-4c6f-a7c8-15e93f0622af" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="7b999d19-70a6-4c6f-a7c8-15e93f0622af">whose main platform is hatred of Jews, LGBGT and whites in general</label> and who is a proud <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/nation-islam" rel="nofollow noopener">admirer</a> of Hitler. Farrakan was an invited speaker at their marches and events and they attended his own events. In part it was because the three women at the top, Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Bob Bland were all cut from the same cloth when it came to their attitude towards Jewish people. You can look them all up. Bob Bland actually tweeted that the white supremacist New Zealand massacre was the work of American Jews. She says she was being hassled by her toddlers when she posted it. Surely you can't mention what a stellar light the author was as a founder without mentioning that she had to resign for less than stellar reasons? Or perhaps you can in marketing. <br /><br />It should be said she has apologised for the anti-Semitism. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="af62242b-a3d4-4639-a09e-1d69a9c8ab9d" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="af62242b-a3d4-4639-a09e-1d69a9c8ab9d">(and as what looks like part of that, raised money to repair a Jewish cemetery which is an extremely odd thing to do, making up for anti-Semitism or just looking to raise money for any group. I can think of a million charities involving children or victims of racism I'd raise money for first. But it is what it is)</label> which she says was misinterpreted along with her calls for Jihad (which she says she didn't mean violently) but then she spoke alongside Rasmea Odeh at a dinner, and told the audience that she was “honored to be on this stage with Rasmea.” Rasmea Odeh was convicted for her role in 1969 for the bombing of an Israeli supermarket. Odeh lost her American citizenship over that.<br /><br />One of the character witnesses for Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a convict in the 1993 bombing of the WTC, was <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:91rSFmw8gHQJ:https://m.facebook.com/mzuhdijasser/posts/make-no-mistakethe-militant-jihadi-training-camp-and-its-horrific-child-abuse-di/1806615699373714/+&amp;cd=13&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=vg" rel="nofollow noopener">Imam Siraj Wahhaj</a> whom Linda Sarsour, at an Islamic Society of North America meeting described as her “favorite person in this room. Imam Siraj Wahhaj who has been a mentor, motivator, and encourager of mine”. (The link is to the American Islamic Forum for Democracy website on Facebook. I do not have FB so it is a webcache link).<br /><br />She feels that any person who supports Israel cannot be a feminist, "Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement?’ There can't be in feminism,""? She doesn't get to define feminism! At least one Jewish woman, an avowed feminist and a co-founder, Vanessa Wruble, was thrown out of Sarsour's movement for being an Israel-supporting feminist, although the Board denied it but refused to say why. <br /><br />This is <a href="https://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/11/17/before-her-visit-to-campus-students-should-know-about-linda-sarsours-history-of-anti-semitism/" rel="nofollow noopener">one of the articles</a> I read, which you may consider biased itself, as it is written by a Jewish woman. On the other hand the author protests against Islamophobia and she is a Muslim woman. <br /><br />There is a difference between being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. There are anti-Israeli Jews, and extremely critical of Israel Jews but when the words Israeli, Zionist and Jew are used interchangeably, then it is obvious to Jews, if not all, that it is anti-Semitism. Jews are the proper judges of whether something is anti-Semitic or not, just as Blacks are the proper judges of whether something is racist or not. If it feels like you are being discriminated against or feel hatred towards you and it burns, you know it. My family is multiracial and multireligion <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="4aaee4c7-5196-4878-a9a3-82b8e66d0d44" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="4aaee4c7-5196-4878-a9a3-82b8e66d0d44">- white, black and East Indian, Vietnamese, Jewish, Hindu, Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist, Catholic and Buddhist. There are even White Christians. We intermarry a lot not being a prejudiced bunch and putting love first. </label> So we have a lot of experience in what it feels like for us, our partners and our children when we suffer the 'slings and arrows' of other people's prejudices in words or deeds.<br /><br />On balance I will probably get the book, I might get it for the shop as I would like to hear other people's opinions of it that have nothing to do with my own preoccupations and preconceptions. Anti-Semitism, like misogyny strikes at my heart. Racism too, my sons are Black. I can't ignore these things and I've never found a justification for any of them that rings true with me. Prejudices are a form of conspiracy theory, facts (if they exist) are twisted to fit the agenda, research by bigots is put above peer-reviewed science and like religion, it is 'faith' that reigns the day.<br /><br /><i>Also posted on my wordpress blog, link in profile, along with the comments in case this gets deleted. I'm getting a lot of trolls I'm immediately deleting. Why don't people post their own reviews if they have differing view points?</i>

10+++ stars. A must read for those who believe in inclusion, hope and a better world.<br /><br />Sarsour, one of the co-organizers of the Women's March, is a warrior for justice. She believes our highest responsibility is to care for one another by showing up and speaking out for the voiceless among us. <br /><br />The book starts with a powerful foreward by Harry Belafonte. Belafonte marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, JR and John Lewis during the civil rights movement. Belafonte was present and provided the inspiration for the social justice voltron, a powerful trifecta of Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez, when they created the MARCH2JUSTICE. <br /><br />The march was a 250 mile, nine-day event, from New York to Washington, DC. On the seventh day of the march, Freddie Gray died. He was killed in Baltimore, so the marchers changed their route in order to march on the western side of Baltimore to join other protestors. <br /><br />Sarsour describes her memoir as a social justice manifesto. She warns that silence immobilizes us. She believes in using our voices as megaphones and states that we must never negotiate away or compromise our principles and values. She advocates for us to join together to become this nation's unshakable moral compass. <br /><br />Her memoir is packed with poignant, heart wrenching stories, including the NYPD policing policies and practices against Muslims after 9/11. Through her efforts and the efforts of many others, NY Police Commissioner, William Bratton, in 2014 shuttered the Muslim surveillance program and indicated that the program had not generated any leads to terrorist enterprises. It was at this same point in time that Donald Trump was considering a presidential campaign run.<br /><br />Part One of Sarsour's book begins with this quote by Valerie Kaur, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project:<br /><br />"The passion to change the world flickers in you like a flame, and if you let that light go out, you will be robbing the world of your greatest gift. Your task today is not to know what the future holds; your task is to vow to protect that flame." <br /><br />Highly, highly recommend! This is the best book I have read in 2023 and will most likely be the best book I read this entire year.<br /><br />

I have so many thoughts about this book, wow.<br /><br />So <i>We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders</i> is Linda Sarsour's memoir. She recalls her childhood in Brooklyn, the beginning of her activism, and the Women's March. It's a memoir but it's also very much about speaking up and being yourself in a world that might not accept you. It's a powerful book, engaging and well written. <br /><br />I'm going to split this review into topics because I realized I'm just all over the place when it comes to this book's content. In short, to use Sarsour's style ("Brooklyn-Palestinian-American-Muslim"), as a liberal Israeli American-ish Zionist Jew, I don't know how to feel about this. <br /><br /><u> <b>Sarsour's Activism: </b> </u><br />The heart of this book is her activism and what she's doing is so necessary and so important. Hearing about her work with Muslim immigrants or the marches that she helped organize with BLM was really empowering and interesting. The way her message comes across in her book seems so important and relevant. A lot of what I know about her comes from media talking about her so it was very cool to suddenly see how amazing her work with refugees has been.<br /><br />I had no idea how deep and awful the American prejudice towards Muslims was after 9/11. Sarsour describes things like FBI suddenly making people disappear, for no reason or surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods. Even if we take her work with a grain of salt, it's definitely sad to hear about and my heart hurts for every innocent person who suffered because of 9/11.  <br /><br /><u> <b>Acknowledging Antisemitism</b> </u><br />Basing myself just on this book, there was something so so problematic about the way Sarsour address the claim that she has said antisemitic things.<br /><br />As I see it, we all grow up with various prejudices. This world still is far from being perfect and there are so many harmful notions that we end up being taught. I think those of us that are concerned about making the world a better place should always look inside and listen to others. Our intersectional activism requires us to be ready to listen and learn. <br /><br />So when Jews tell Linda Sarsour that she's being antisemitic and her response is to go, "I'm not antisemitic, I have Jewish friends", it sounds exactly like every person who's ever said, "I'm not racist, I have Black friends". She doesn't pause to acknowledge that maybe Jews can tell when someone's being antisemitic or that JVP are hardly representatives of Judaism.<br /><br />I had read this book because I hoped to hear an explanation. She starts this book by doing a beautiful job at explaining what she meant when she spoke about jihad and yet, her acknowledgement of antisemitism is pretty much non-existent. Just as her comments about jihad were taken out of context, I had hoped to see the same for antisemitism but nope. <br /><br />This problem is even bigger because this is a massive problem across the Israeli-Palestinian discourse and broadly speaking, the American left. As an American, I am so here for Democrats but as an Israeli and as a Jew, it feels like there's never any type of awareness about Jews as a minority and Jewish persecution. She does so much beautiful work in uniting Americans together and it's frustrating that Jews for her only exist as a way to refute claims about antisemitism. <br /><br />As an Israeli, I check myself thousands of times about Islamophobia and Arab racism because I realize those things slip into our discourse and I don't want them to. I still feel like there's so much to learn. It's embarrassing and shameful that Sarsour, as a Palestinian American Muslim, does not do the same. Exactly because of her heritage, if she cares about her intersections, she should dig deep into the history of Muslim antisemitism and make sure that when she speaks up against Israel, her discourse doesn't also include antisemitism. <br /><br /><b> <u>Feminism:</u> </b> <br />I kind of hoped to see any type of comment about feminism in Muslim societies. I mean, Sarsour talks about how her upbringing was different from other people's (like her father was happy that his first born was a woman) and she takes care to point out that every religious thing she did was her choice, from an assigned marriage to the hijab. It was really nice to see, especially because that's a topic that gets so much negative attention. <br /><br />That said, I was missing a conversation about how she feels about the sexism within the culture. Does she struggle with it? Has it always been easy for her to break out of the sexist norms and combine her feminism with her culture and religion? Does she see her experience as the majority or the minority? Her voice about this would have been really interesting.<br /><br />As a minor point, her claim about how feminism needs to also speak for Palestinian women is very empty and misleading. I mean, does feminism need to speak for all women? Absolutely. That also includes Zionist women, doesn't it? I could just as easily say, "you're not a feminist if you don't speak for Zionist women". It's irritating because it's like she's not saying anything. <br /><br />Her claim about how you can't be a feminist and a Zionist is just ridiculous. I've gotten the impression that often people use the word Zionist because they have realized it's not politically correct to use the word Jew but ultimately, all Zionism really has ever meant is the desire for Jews to have a country. It doesn't say anything about borders or Palestinians. One state for everyone can entirely be a Zionist vision so it's just irritating that she takes the feminist cause and turns it into something that it's not. We should empower Palestinian women and Israeli women in our search for peace (and there's an actual organization that does this- Women For Peace). <br /><br />Speaking of peace, we have reached my final point. <br /><br /><u> <b> Palestinian-American:</b> </u><br />In many ways, Linda Sarsour and I have led very similar childhoods. We both grew up speaking a Semitic language at home and English at school, we both have parents who moved to the United States in search of better opportunities, we both spent summers here in Israel-Palestine. I think Linda Sarsour and I would find we have a lot of similar childhood memories. <br /><br />And yet, Sarsour's parents taught her Arabic so that she would be able to communicate with relatives- mine taught me Hebrew so that I would be able to live here. My parents taught me that we would return. And now, I no longer feel comfortable hyphenating myself as an American-Israeli because I feel more Israeli while Sarsour continues to stress both of them in pretty much every speech. <br /><br />I think these differences are crucial. Would Sarsour come back here if she could? If tomorrow Palestine would be an independent country, would she leave her life in America and move to a country that is essentially foreign to her? <br /><br />In some ways, when she continues to mention her Palestinian heritage, it feels like it's just that- heritage. She mentions the importance of the right of return but would she return? When she attempts to speak for Palestinians by stressing her heritage, it's odd because her Palestinian-ness is a reflection of ethnicity rather than nationality, isn't it? <br /><br />When she talks about solutions, it doesn't matter to her where the border would cross or what the government would look like because it's not her life that would change radically based of this, even if she has family here. I realize this is the case for every international politics conversation and of course, you don't need to be personally impacted by a topic in order to stand up for justice but by mentioning her heritage, it comes across as if this is a matter that has severe implications for her and I just don't understand how she claim this. <br /><br />I'd like to conclude by saying that I found myself watching interviews with her (dang, her Brooklyn accent is so prominent) and I was somewhat shocked by the amount of hateful and racist comments. I mean, I'd say that perhaps her activism about the conflict is misguided but between that and saying she advocates for sharia law is quite a big gap and it's awful how quickly people cross into pure hate. It shows how necessary it is that she does speak up. <br /><br />To sum up, <i> We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders</i> is interesting. I think it could have delved deeper into certain topics, as it leaves them unanswered. I'm glad I read it because it provided insight into the American left. As a whole, if you're interested in more information about who Linda Sarsour is, this book is probably a good place to start.<br /><br /><b>What I'm Taking With Me</b><br />- This review is so long, what am I doing with my life<br />- I loved hearing about how she organized her community and the way Basemah inspired her. <br />- I feel like I'm reading way too much about Israel as a way to find context to my studies and well, this is an unexpected turn of events.

Sarsour’s book is a prime example of why history matters. It’s not just the events themselves, it’s not the date, place, or time. It’s the people that were and continue to be affected. By taking us through personal narratives, Sarsour is able to contextualize and explain the significance of a transformative period in history—one that continues to have lasting impacts. Beyond diving into the harmful effects of 9/11, Sarsour also shares insights on what it takes to organize a movement. While I wish she would have spent more time explaining the barriers she faced as an outspoken Muslim woman in a patriarchal community, she did touch upon the struggles she faced as a mother in this field, something I had never considered. I also appreciate her explaining why she chose to wear the hijab, and what it meant to be a visible Muslim. I think those conversations are important to explain the complexity of the hijab to those who may be unfamiliar with the concept. <br /><br />I am a person for the people, but it’s easier for me to be reactive to injustice than it is for me to think about educating the ignorant. This book helped revive my faith, my spirit, and passion to be loud for our communities that often go unheard. While I may not agree with the significance she placed on the Women’s March (claiming it was the precursor to the political outcry after Trump’s election), learning about the organizing efforts that went behind the movement did show me how having these difficult conversations with a handful of individuals can eventually spread. She didn’t dismiss an opportunity to educate because the payout would be “too small” which is something I’ve often thought about in social justice work—focusing on systemic change because of a larger payout than focusing on changing laymen (a much more difficult, an often unwaverable task). But she showed the power of the latter. <br /><br />I appreciate that the book focused on the political issues more than it did her individual efforts, but I do want to thank her for her resilience. And for being strong enough to realize and act upon the fact that as Muslims, our actions reflect the community, not just the individual. If she chose to express her frustrations differently, we wouldn’t have been able to progress.

Full disclosure: I dislike Sarsour. This book was terrible. Ms. Unapologetic Palestinian refers to the West Bank as the West Bank of Palestine - it’s not; it’s the West Bank of the Jordan River. She also says that 750,000 were expelled on May 15, 1948 - most Palestinians left voluntarily (for a variety of reasons) but there’s no way it happened in one day. That doesn’t even sound like it could ever be right. The logistics and condition of the roads alone. 750,000 don’t go anywhere in one day. The Nazis used railroads and during their big 1941-1943 push to kill every Jew they could only deliver several thousand ppl per day. And from history we know the flight took place over a period of many months. And in various stages as wealthy Arab Palestinians fled long before the fellahin. Sarsour would benefit from a play date with a history book.<br /><br />The rest of the book is terrible. I had to skip thru all the chapters on her early career. Every story is self serving and sounds totally made up. She tells the stories using current slang even when they took place in the 90s, which adds to their bullshit factor. It’s all just way too contrived. On top of this, the book is just dull. She doesn’t really discuss Palestine or Israel or any of her many controversies.<br /><br />In the Women’s March chapter, which doesn’t even contain the word ‘antisemitism’, Sarsour details a discussion in which everyone agrees that organizers should be able to demonstrate genuine feminism in their ‘home cause’. I’ve never once seen Sarsour even mention the misogyny and honor killings that plague Palestine. I’ve seen her push sharia law and express a desire to take away the vaginas of other women. I haven’t seen her speak against FGM either. She’s a charlatan. Her shtick is to find movements to usurp for the Palestinian cause. Black lives matter? Let’s make this about Palestinians. But she is not unique in this sense.

I am not generally a reader of memoirs, but this is an amazing read about an amazing woman. One person, with a penchant for what is just and true, can make a difference. Thank you Ms. Sarsour!<br /><br /><i>"No matter how pitched the battle or drawn out the fight, if we do not waver, we will prevail." <br /><br />"Look around you, my brothers and sisters. We are each other's greatest hope, the beating heart of a nation. We are what democracy looks like."<br /><br />"For me, this call to peaceful, yet courageous action expresses out highest human responsibility- to care for one another by showing up and speaking out for the voiceless among us."<br /><br />"This was the problem with our country, I realized then. We failed to grieve for other people's children as if they were our own. We failed to see that injustices visited upon 'the other' had also been visited upon us..." </i>

Linda Sarsour starts her book with one of the most important Orientalist issues in understanding Islam in the West. She clarifies the definition of Jihad (جهاد‎) and how it is used in daily life compared to the common misconception of the term in the West. Jihad (جهاد‎) is a personal and spiritual choice which simply means “struggle”. She ends the book by showing us what does it mean ”NOT to be a bystander”. As an example, she mentions people such as Rick Best, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher who stood up to hate speech toward two Black Muslim girls on a Portland train in 2017.<br><br>From her writing, I can tell that she is a tough Brooklyn activist, and a warm Palestinian mother, daughter, and sister. She writes about the post 9/11 experience where in a matter of weeks her life -like many other Muslim Americans- was transformed from a regular citizen to a potential suspect. I can relate to her experience after Trump’s escalationist (imperialist) policies towards the Middle East. The recent murder of Iranian Maj. General Qasem Soleimani on January 3rd is one of its consequences. <br><br>She writes about her long experience of campaigning with Bernie Sanders. Linda is not the usual academic person who sits back safely in the basement of some university and writes about historical facts. She is a hands-on grassroots organizer. This is what makes her writing so interesting and rich. Her work with a variety of interfaith and racial justice groups is beyond impressive. <br><br><i>Read the full review at</i>:<br><a href="https://insideanairport.com/post/190990210254/linda-sarsours-we-are-not-here-to-be-bystanders" rel="nofollow noopener">insideanairport</a><br>***<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1540796925i/26514899.png" width="100" height="38" alt="CC" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy">

From Brooklyn street smart girl to activist and co-organizer of The Women's March, Palestinian Muslim American Linda Sarsour teaches us all how to stand tall for our beliefs all the while loving each another. This memoir is a must read. Loved it!!

5 out of 5. Amazing and so important. Everyone needs to read this book.