Prosecutors have charged an extremist who threatened to kill me for my faith as a Muslim, and likened lynching me to the lynching of a Jewish businessman in 1915 named Leo Frank.
Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism are two sides of the same cancerous coin—another fact reaffirmed as I run as a Democrat for Virginia Senate.
Extremists may try as they might, but I will not be intimidated by such hatred and violence. I will continue to march forward for justice and fairness. I live to serve all humanity and no amount of threats will cause me to stop.
As the New York Times reports:
“Mr. Rashid, who moved to the United States from Pakistan with his family in 1987, had seen threatening language like that before. “I don’t know if my experience is necessarily unique,” he said. “As a person of color, as an immigrant and as a Muslim, to speak publicly about your faith and to receive death threats is not uncommon.”
According to a screenshot of the tweet, which Mr. Rashid shared on his own account, the threat included the words “Muslim scum” and showed a black-and-white picture of a man hanging by a rope. (That man appeared to be Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager who was lynched by a mob in Georgia in 1915. According to the Library of Congress, his case is “widely regarded as a flash point of anti-Semitism” in the United States.)”
Online threats have been intimidating on a personal level, Mr. Rashid said. “But it actually made me reflect and understand why I am a human rights lawyer, and why I am running for office,” he said. “To uplift and protect marginalized communities is what I believe public service should be doing.”
I am grateful for the outpouring of support, and invite you to continue to support our campaign so we can flip this district blue and elevate civility, compassion, fairness, and justice in our public discourse.
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