‘Hoodies 'n' Hijabs’: Michigan’s El-Sayed pushed viral Muslim hate crime hoax in critique of America

A leading contender to be the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Michigan previously helped perpetuate a hate crime hoax which sought to link the murder of an Iraqi-American woman in California to the death of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and which sought to blame the woman’s brutal killing on racism and anti-Islamic bigotry in America, when the actual criminal turned out to be her Muslim husband.

Trying to merge far-left factions

Abdul El-Sayed — then a social epidemiologist at Columbia University and now a possible frontrunner to be the next U.S. senator from the state of Michigan — glommed on to and helped push the “Hoodies and Hijabs” viral social media movement which sought to link leftwing anger over Hispanic-American George Zimmerman killing 17-year-old Martin to the vicious bludgeoning death of 32-year-old, Iraqi-born U.S. citizen, mother of five Shaima Alawadi in her suburban home outside San Diego.

While El-Sayed sought to blame the innocent Muslim woman’s murder on alleged Islamophobia and hatred inside America, the actual murderer was soon determined by police to actually be her husband, Kassim Alhimidi, a fellow Muslim and Iraqi exile who smashed her skull, likely with a tire iron, after he discovered she was planning to divorce him and move away to Texas. Alhimidi’s attack on Alawadi occurred on March 21, 2012, and she succumbed to her fatal wounds after being taken off of life support on March 24, 2012.

The polling average by Real Clear Polling suggests that El-Sayed is the slight frontrunner in the Democratic primary, where his opponents are Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

El-Sayed penned an opinion piece for Mic — titled “From Trayvon Martin Hoodies to Shaima Alawadi Hijabs: Who is Responsible for Hate in America?” — just four days after Alawadi’s death, baselessly claiming Martin had been killed because he wore a hoodie and that Alawadi had been killed because she wore a hijab, and wrongly blaming the woman’s death on “racism, xenophobia, and hate” in American society.

El-Sayed proven wrong, promoted a hoax

But the allegations that Alawadi’s murder was an anti-Islamic hate crime turned out to be a hoax, according to the police, the prosecutors, and then the jury which convicted Alhimidi of murder in April 2014.

Just the News recently reported that El-Sayed is a years-long protégé of controversial Muslim activist Linda Sarsour, whose endorsement of him during his previous failed bid to be Michigan governor in 2018 helped elevate him from relative obscurity nearly a decade ago. Sarsour — as well as officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Muslim and left-wing activists — joined El-Sayed in 2012 in perpetuating the hate crime hoax, with Sarsour publishing a lengthy piece for CNN’s Belief Blog in early April 2012 titled, “My Take: My hijab is my hoodie.”

El-Sayed’s campaign and Sarsour did not respond to requests for comment.

El-Sayed linking Alawadi and Trayvon was part of the strategy

El-Sayed’s March 2012 piece attacked Zimmerman’s killing of Martin, harshly criticized the American government and American society broadly for Alawadi’s murder, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the U.S. struggle against jihadists and terrorists.

“It’s been a month since the fatal shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American boy who was walking home from a convenience store with skittles and an iced tea. His crime? Being black, male, and wearing a hoodie — looking 'suspicious' in an upscale, gated Florida neighborhood,” El-Sayed claimed in his March 28, 2012, screed.

“And then a few days ago, we heard about (or maybe we didn't) the beating death of Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year old mother of five. She was a Muslim Iraqi immigrant who had only recently moved into the neighborhood in which she was murdered in California,” El-Sayed continued. “Having been repeatedly clubbed with a tire iron, her 17-year-old daughter found her in the dining room of their home with a note by her side: ‘Go back to your country, you terrorist.’ Her crime? Having the courage to wear a Hijab in a society where Muslims are openly vilified for the crimes of others.”

“Trayvon and Shaima were both murdered in cold blood. Why?” El-Sayed wrote. “Because Trayvon, a black kid in a hoodie, and Shaima, a Middle Eastern woman in a hijab, both fit archetypes indicted by American society as foreign, dangerous, and evil. And rather than take the time to learn what either of these victims were up to — Trayvon getting a quick snack during halftime, or Shaima raising an upstanding American family — their assailants assumed them into the roles society teaches about them, everyday.”

El-Sayed wrote that “these despicable acts represent only the tip of an iceberg of racism, xenophobia, and hate, the base of which is founded upon some of American society’s most trusted institutions.”

“Our news media has a long history of profiteering on symbols, like hoodies and hijabs, by teaching us that they should elicit fear, contempt, and hatred,” El-Sayed claimed, adding that “larger media outlets, like Fox News, specialize in prosecuting Islam and Muslims. Nightly, these corporations sear images of Muslim women covered from head to toe, or thick-bearded Arab men in army fatigues and shalwar kamis with piercing stares into our minds as ‘Islamic war chants’ play in the background and talking heads blare on about the dangers of the ‘Islamist’ threat.”

“The troubling murders of Trayvon and Shaima have re-opened the public conversation about hate crimes in American society,” El-Sayed also wrote. “More offensive and unjust is the unfettered messaging from some of our country’s most trusted institutions that continues to create the climate of fear, suspicion and hatred that ultimately led to these tragic murders. If we are serious about preventing the next hate crime, deconstructing and eliminating the onslaught against racial, class, or religious symbols in our media discourse and our government’s actions must be a priority.”

“That, or America will continue to be a dangerous place for black kids buying candy at halftime, or Muslim women waiting for their kids to come home from school,” El-Sayed concluded.

Making it about race is well-received springboard

Zimmerman killed Martin in late February 2012 in Zimmerman’s neighborhood of Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman’s accusers claimed he had racially profiled Martin and had murdered him, while Zimmerman said he was attacked and injured by Martin and had shot him in self-defense. Then-President Barack Obama notably said in late March 2012 that "my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin — you know if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Zimmerman was charged in Florida with second-degree murder in mid-April 2012. Zimmerman was found not guilty on all charges in July 2013 following a highly-publicized jury trial, and the Obama Justice Department then announced in February 2015 that they had “found insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.”

And despite El-Sayed’s contention that Alawadi had been murdered because of America’s intolerance towards Islam, Alawadi’s Muslim husband — Kassim Al-Himidi — was convicted of murder in 2014 and is currently serving a lengthy sentence.

Sarsour and Bernie Sanders go all in with El-Sayed

Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist and vocal anti-Israel critic, stepped down from leading the Women’s March in 2019 over allegations of antisemitism and her connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. She describes herself as "an author, award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer, and mother of three" on her webpage. She would go on to throw her political weight — particularly among the U.S./Arab community — behind El-Sayed.

El-Sayed, who lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2018, received Sarsour’s backing during that race and in this current one for Michigan’s soon-to-be open Senate seat, with Sarsour’s support in 2018 also seeming to subsequently bring the Michigan-born Egyptian-American key support from socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has also endorsed him again in this Senate race. Sarsour was a vocal Sanders campaign surrogate in 2016, and Sanders won Michigan over Hillary Clinton that year.

The evidence shows Sarsour quickly celebrating and endorsing El-Sayed in 2017, promoting him to Islamic crowds (while she praised extremist Imam Siraj Wahhaj and called for a "jihad" against Donald Trump), apparently bringing on Sanders campaign veterans to assist El-Sayed, using her Muslim activist network to back his candidacy, self-admittedly moving to Michigan to campaign for him, and continuing to promote him for years after his 2018 loss.

Sarsour also lamented that “while there has been some effort to connect Martin and Alawadi by focusing on their attire — a hoodie for the African-American teen and a hijab for the young mother — there has been a deafening silence and reluctance to take Alawadi’s case to the forefront of public debate by some in the Muslim community.”

She criticized “major Muslim organizations and activists” for “treading carefully” on whether Alawadi’s death was actually a hate crime.

“With only initial evidence – a dead black teenager, an iced tea, a pack of Skittles, a neighborhood watchman – many of us have presumed the Martin killing is an unfortunate result of racism in America. Some have even gone so far as to compare Martin's death to that of Emmett Till. Why not the same for Alawadi?” Sarsour wrote. “Is an Arab Muslim woman drowning in her blood with a note deeming her a terrorist and telling her to go back to her ‘country’ not explicit enough?”

But Alawadi’s death was not because of racism or bigotry in the U.S., but was rather at the hands of her Muslim husband.

Baseless “Hoodies and Hijabs” plan quickly spread after Alawadi’s murder

Beyond El-Sayed and Sarsour, social media and the press also played their part in pushing what would turn out to be a hoax hate crime.The San Diego Union Tribune reported on March 25, 2012 — one day after Alawadi’s death — that “social media exploded with calls to action.”

It was reported by The New York Times the same day that “on Twitter, where her death became the most-discussed topic worldwide within hours, bloggers and journalists traced a connection between the headscarf that the pious mother of five wore and the hooded sweatshirt that the Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, was wearing when he was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford.”

The Washington Post wrote a story two days later titled “Trayvon Martin case, Iraqi woman’s death spark ‘hoodies and hijab’ rally.” The outlet reported that college campuses were planning a “hoodies and hijab” protest, and that “on Twitter, the phrase Million Hijab March is also beginning to gather steam” as “a nod to the Million Hoodie March organized last week in support of the family of Trayvon Martin.”

The New York Times reported the next day that “Iraqi Immigrants in California Town Fear a Hate Crime in a Woman’s Killing.” The outlet led with a photo whose caption stated that “Kassim Alhimidi wept over the body of his wife, Shaima Alawadi, at a prayer ceremony on Tuesday. She died after being found severely beaten in her home near San Diego.” Alhimidi would soon be found guilty of this murder.

The outlet reported that, according to Alhimidi, “they had been called terrorists before” while living in the U.S.

“Some neighbors, I say ‘hi’ to them, and they just turn away,” the husband and soon-to-be convicted murderer said in Arabic, with his son Mohammed providing translation. “More than 95 percent of the time, I feel welcome. But once in a while, people shout at you. They shout ‘terrorist,’ or ‘go back to your country’.” Alhimidi was found guilty of first-degree murder following a jury trial in April 2014.

Mohammed, the son, reportedly said: “There’s only three people that know what happened. God, my mom and the guy who did it.” 

"How could you kill someone who was always there for you? Mom lives with us every day, but you are the one who will be forgotten," Fatima Alhimidi, the daughter of Alawadi and her convicted murderer husband, wrote in a letter which was read aloud by the judge in court.