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| Rana Elmir
DETROIT — Rana Elmir, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan, responded to hateful comments on a column she wrote for the Washington Post on Islamophobia.
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Elmir said the negative responses, which included profane personal attacks and implied threats of violence, prove her point about the growing threat of bigotry.
In her Washington Post piece, published Dec. 28, Elmir argued that Muslim Americans should not be asked to condemn terrorism.
“Make no mistake: The terror imposed by those who sympathize with Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militant group), al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabab and other groups is just as foreign to me as the terror advanced by mostly white men at the alarming rate of one mass killing every two weeks in this country,” Elmir wrote.
Soon after, horrid remarks, some of which are misogynistic, started targeting her on the Internet.
Elmir shot back with a piece published on the ACLU’s website.
She said commenters, who claim Islamphobia does not exist, sent vile messages to denounce the author and her American identity.
“Surprising to some, I welcome the vitriol, just as I welcome the messages of support I have received. For each and every hate-filled message proves my point: Muslims are not threats. They are threatened,” Emir concluded.
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