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Courtney Love, Linda Sarsour Twitter Fight Raises Questions About Palestinian Women’s March Activist

By Perri Fisher
Published on: 08:35 PST, Jun 8, 2017

Courtney Love Cobain, a former member of the band Hole and the wife of late Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain, got into quite the Twitter tussle with Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour on Wednesday after the Women’s March organizer raised over $100,000 in support of a Somali woman who claims to be a hate crime victim, reports Fox News. Love claimed that Sarsour is a “fraud” and a “liar,” citing news articles that revealed that the alleged victim, Rahma Warsame, may not have been targeted for her race.

The Twitter War

The conflict appears to have started Wednesday morning when Courtney Love tweeted “You’re a vile disgrace to women and all mankind @lsarsour.” For several hours, Love’s tweet stood without any major challenges. But that afternoon brought a retort from Alyssa Klein, head of social media for the Women’s March, who replied “Linda is the kindest, most generous, most incredible woman I know. She makes me proud to be a woman. I am forever proud to be her sister.” Courtney Love immediately replied by calling Sarsour a fraud. Klein questioned where Courtney was getting her information from and questioned her support for women’s rights.

Love replied, “I worked my ass off my entire life to defend women, I didn’t create fake stories and lie about them nor rip people off financially.”

Courtney Love’s next big critic was Women’s March organizer Sophie Ellman-Golan, who claimed that the only reason why Courtney chose to criticize Linda Sarsour was because she is Muslim, accusing her of “fear mongering” and of “stirring up conspiracy theories.”

A few hours later, Twitter users Robby Starbuck and Just A Navy Wife jumped on Golan’s thread to defend Love, with Starbuck referencing Linda Sarsour’s ties to a “Palestinian terrorist” and Navy Wife stating that Linda Sarsour is a supporter of Sharia Law. These comments were followed by several Twitter users echoing similar sentiments.

Linda Sarsour joined the fray herself with a re-tweet of Love’s citation of a Daily Caller article that stated that the claimed hate crime against Rahma Warsame “allegedly did not happen.” Sarsour chose to criticize Love’s position by attacking her source, stating, “So Courtney posts a right wing article to make no point.” Sarsour declined to reply directly to any of the tweets that the singer wrote about her, instead opting to reply using re-tweets and tags, claiming that she will “keep speaking truth to power” despite Love’s criticism.

Controversy Over “Hate Crime” Victim

The Daily Caller is not the only news outlet to dispute the hate crime claim made by Rahma Warsame. The Columbus Dispatch states that police said that the fight, which occurred on June 3 and injured multiple people, “did not appear to be a hate crime.” Columbus police spokesman, Sgt. Rich Weiner, said that no charges were filed because multiple witnesses provided conflicting stories, and there was not enough physical evidence. An injured witness to the conflict, Samantha Morales, stated, “Race has nothing to do with this.”

According to Samantha Morales, who was also hospitalized, the conflict started around 9:30 pm when she saw a child being struck in the face with a shoe by a 28-year-old Somali woman, Muna Warsame, who is not related to Rahma Warsame. Soon, both women called 911, with Morales claiming that Muna was wielding a stick and threatening to break windows in her home, and Muna claiming that Morales took the boy into her apartment.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that after Muna approached Morales’ apartment, she allegedly used a stun gun on her hand, provoking screams from Morales that could be heard on the 911 call. Morales claimed that, after other Somali neighbors began attacking her, her boyfriend, Ricky Boice, came to her defense. Rahma Warsame, the woman for whom Linda Sarsour is raising money, claimed that Boice made racial comments during the fight, which allegedly involved about 20 people.

Linda Sarsour’s Past Controversies

Along with claims that Sarsour is supporting a woman who is not actually a victim of a hate crime, there have also been many claims made that Sarsour supports radical ideas and individuals. According to the Daily Caller, Linda Sarsour has shared a stage with a convicted terrorist, Palestinian woman Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist group. Odeh was convicted in Israel in 1970 of taking part in two bombings, one of which killed two Israeli students, reports the Daily Caller.

Linda Sarsour has also repeatedly praised the radical practice of Sharia Law and has claimed that Saudi Arabia treats women better than the United States, according to Heat Street. Linda Sarsour has also sharply attacked critics of the practice of female genital mutilation, claiming that they have no right to call themselves women and making crude comments about their genitals.

Courtney Love’s Relationship With Feminism

According to the Independent, Courtney Love has repeatedly identified as a feminist. However, she feels that there are inherent differences between the sexes and takes issue with feminists who use too strict of a definition to identify the philosophy’s adherents.

Courtney explained her viewpoint.

“I am a feminist and I’ve always thought of myself as a feminist. What I don’t like about feminism and the far left in general is the in-fighting, the way that the far left in-fights too much to get anything done and I feel like in feminism it’s like, ‘well, she’s not really feminist enough’ and there can be this kind of less-than thing in feminism.”

It seems that Courtney Love is currently suffering from the very problem that she has identified, with fans of Linda Sarsour claiming that Courtney cannot possibly be a feminist or an advocate of women if she disagrees with the words or actions of the Women’s March organizer.

Courtney Love with her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. [Image by Zacharie Scheurer/AP Images]

The Result Of The Courtney Love-Linda Sarsour Beef

Things seemed to have calmed down on Twitter for now, but this brief spat has raised important issues regarding the nature of hate crimes and the qualifications of feminism. While Courtney Love currently identifies as an advocate for women, it is unclear how long this perhaps one-sided friendship will last in light of Courtney’s revelation of herself as an enemy of Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour.

[Featured Image by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The New York Women’s Foundation]

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