Muslim lawmaker pushes 'Islamophobia' narrative, claims hijab pulled off student's head — despite police noting false statements, no hate crime

Virginia Democratic Del. Ibraheem Samirah — a Muslim who made headlines in 2019 for protesting at President Donald Trump's address in Jamestown — is in the news again.

What now?

Samirah sent a letter Monday to the Fairfax County School Board, opening the missive in this way: "Recently a Muslim student from Fairfax High School named Ms. Ekran Mohamed was viciously bullied by two other students who pulled her hijab off of her head. This horrific event ... demonstrates that we need to take immediate action to prevent anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia in our school systems."

Problem is, police came to quite a different conclusion about last month's incident:

City of Fairfax police said no hate crime happened and no racial comments were made. What's more, the claim that the female student's hijab was pulled off her head was not exactly true, either — police said she told them her hijab "became partially undone during the altercation, exposing her hair."

Oh, and in addition, the female student told police that "information posted on several social media sites, stating that racial comments were used during the altercation, were false."

Thing is, though, Samirah isn't buying cops' conclusions. He added in his letter to the school board that "eyewitnesses have verified that the individuals who assaulted Ms. Mohammed used Islamophobic slurs and drew anti-Muslim illustrations in addition to removing Ms. Mohammed’s hijab."

With that he urged the school board to adopt "serious curriculum changes," including the removal of "all Islamophobic content" — particularly surrounding the 9/11 attacks — and the institution of accurate Islam descriptions and the addition of lessons about the Islamic Golden Age. Samirah also wants accommodations for Muslim students' food and prayer needs as well as cultural sensitivity training for teachers and administrators.

How did folks react to Samirah's letter?

Samirah received quite a bit of backlash on Twitter for continuing to beat the "Islamophobia" drum despite the findings of law enforcement:

• "You are a source of disinformation," one commenter told him.
• "The police and the girl herself say different you s**t stirring race baiter," another user replied. "You and your faux victimhood are the problem here."
• "Look at you, a shameless race-hustler, vigorously stirring that race-baiting pot even AFTER it has been proven that she got into a fight, that SHE instigated, and then decided to play the victim and LIE," another commenter said. "I wonder where she learned that from?"
• Another user wrote "typical democRAT, lies and race hustling."

What else do we know about the school altercation?

Regarding last month's altercation at the high school, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., published a report — prior to police making their findings public — saying Mohamed shoved a male student who allegedly was part of a group making Islamophobic jokes and drawing anti-Muslim symbols.

Then she told the station that in response "[he] threw me across the room. I hit my left side on the desk, and my chest hit the chair." WRC then reported that Mohamed said the male student removed her hijab and that she was on the floor with the "wind knocked out of her."

Curiously, Mohamed’s lawyer, Abed Ayoub, told WTOP-FM that Mohamed was grabbed by the neck and shoved when she went to alert a teacher about the alleged Islamophobic jokes and anti-Muslim symbols. There's no mention in the WTOP story about Mohamed shoving the male student initially.

The Fairfax Times reported that Ayoub also told a WTOP reporter that Mohamed spent the evening in an area emergency room and that medical reports documenting contusions and bruises were given to the police.

In the end, the male student and Mohamed received the same in-school suspension, WRC reported, after which Mohamed complained to school friends that she wasn't being heard — and then huge outdoor student protest followed.

WRC's story on Mohamed and the student protest hasn't been updated with police saying no hate crime was committed. And there appear to be no other stories on WRC's website on the subject of "Ekran Mohamed."

But here's the station's video report from its Dec. 16 story:

What else do we know about Samirah?

A Washingtonian feature story on Samirah recounted that in early 2019, when he was a delegate candidate, some of his earlier Facebook posts were publicized.

“Ariel Sharon, burn. Burn a million times for every innocent soul you killed. Hell is excited to have you,” Samirah wrote in a since-deleted post after the death of Israel's former prime minister. And in other posts, Samirah suggested that sending money to Israel is worse than sending money to the KKK.

The magazine said Samirah "quickly apologized, but some Virginia Democrats distanced themselves." Then after he won his election anyway with nearly 60 percent of the vote, Samirah ripped those who abandoned him, telling the Washington Postat his victory party that Democrats “succumbed to the extreme-right propaganda machine. They succumbed to fear.”

Samirah noted to the Washingtonian in regard to his old social media posts that "not one single Jewish organization said I was anti-Semitic. I’m sincerely sorry for hurting people’s feelings. But the truth is, truth sometimes hurts.”