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

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.