No one should ever have taken this story seriously in the first place. But it fit the Left’s picture of reality so well, it couldn’t be resisted. The idea that there would be a second-grade teacher in any school in the country in 2022 who would feel free to rip off a Muslim student’s hijab simply doesn’t accord with the real world. But in the Left’s world, we’re not living in 2022 at all, or if we are, it is a nightmare version of 1955, with “white supremacists” running rampant, terrorizing defenseless People of Color whose just grievances are laughed at by rogue cops and racist judges. Women are forced to deny their true aspirations and resign themselves to lives of housework and children they can’t abort. “Hate” is a family value, with ethnic and religious minorities regularly subjected to incomprehension, abuse, ridicule, and worse.
If that world ever existed, it is long gone, but not as far as Leftist pundits and opinion-makers are concerned. And so Tamar Herman’s life was destroyed. Will this suit help her get her reputation back?
“Teacher at Center of Hijab Controversy Sues Olympic Medalist for Defamation,” by Tracey Tully, New York Times, October 18, 2022:
A seconds-long interaction in a New Jersey classroom unleashed a national firestorm last October as it ricocheted across social media platforms. A 7-year-old girl had come home from school upset, telling her mother that her teacher in Maplewood, New Jersey, had tried to pull off the hijab the girl wears as an observant Muslim.
Her mother recounted the story on Facebook, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab, immediately denounced it as abuse in an Instagram post that went viral. By the next day, Gov. Phil Murphy had weighed in on Twitter, and a statewide Islamic organization was calling for the teacher’s “immediate firing.”
One year later, the matter has landed in court. The family sued the school district and the teacher, Tamar Herman. And this month, the teacher filed a defamation suit in New Jersey’s Superior Court that accuses the Olympian and the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Rights and its director of causing “irreparable harm.”
Herman is also suing the school district, South Orange-Maplewood, in federal court, claiming it was complicit in what she called “relentless discriminatory treatment.”
“What started as a simple misunderstanding between plaintiff, who is Jewish, and one of her second-grade students, who is Muslim, was transformed into defendants’ complicity in a parade of outrageous, false, defamatory and antisemitic statements,” the federal lawsuit, which was filed a day before the state suit, states.
The incident roiled a community known for its liberal values, and tapped into a deep sense of anxiety among many Muslims, who make up roughly 3% of the state population and have faced an uptick in bias crime.
And even though many of the facts remained unclear, social media was quickly awash with angry opinions.
“The strong reaction from the local, state and national level is in large part a culmination of two decades of feeling targeted and vulnerable,” said Sahar Aziz, a Rutgers Law School professor and the author of a book about Islamophobia, “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.”
The teacher said in the defamation lawsuit that she “brushed” back a hooded garment that was blocking the student’s eyes, believing that the girl was wearing her typical “form-fitting” hijab underneath. She said she immediately replaced the head covering and apologized to the girl once she realized her error.
In her state lawsuit, she claims that Muhammad, the fencer, and CAIR-NJ were “motivated by a combination of greed and a fierce desire to burnish their brands as fighters against Islamophobia,” and that her reputation was so damaged that she can never be hired by another public school district.
The legal papers also cite Murphy’s social media commentary, but he is not named as a defendant.
Filed on Oct. 5 in Union County Superior Court, the state suit also alleges that Herman is so afraid for her safety in the community where she taught for 20 years and also lived that she has had to permanently move out of her home.
“She’s been ostracized by her community,” said her lawyer, Erik Dykema….
Wellington says
I just assume when a Muslim in America claims they are a victim of a crime that either they are lying or it was done by some other Muslim. Yes, there are instances when a Muslim in America is a victim of a crime by some non-Muslim but there are so many times when it’s fakery or Muslim on Muslim violence, for example what happened in New Mexico not long ago when a Shiite killed several Sunnis, that one would have to suspend general reason and common sense to assume that the Muslim is virtually always telling the truth, truth not being a high priority in Islamworld.
And you brought this on yourselves, Muslims. You own this.
somehistory says
Yep.
GreekEmpress says
It’s good to see someone fighting back against CAIR. If I can figure out where to send it, I’ll make a contribution to the teacher’s defense fund.
somehistory says
You might be able o contact her attorney as he is named in the above article. He should be able to inform if there is such a fund already set up.
GreekEmpress says
Going to give it a go—
I found an attorney by that name in New Jersey, but he was primarily a patent attorney. But I’ll put in a call tomorrow and see what happens.
somehistory says
Good for you. I’ll be rooting for you to succeed.
GreekEmpress says
According to another article, The Lawfare Project is providing her defense. So I’ll be checking that out today also.
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Good Morning,
Appreciate your financial and moral support.
Regards
Uma
somehistory says
The child was used as a weapon to go against an innocent person. The teacher should win this suit and the jury should hand out some large rewards. c.a.i.rats have bundles of money they collect …in different ways, and the idiot who jumped into the fray, should have some money she can cough up. the parents too…after all, there don’t seem to be many mozlums living in poverty in the U.S.
It’s about time someone challenged the lies mozlums tell about always being the victim of “hate crimes.” And being fully aware that they are lying.
Larry Estavan says
CAIR and the Tamar Herman Hijab Crisis –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev42J1TavAE
PRCS says
Why–ever–does a seven-year-old need to “cover herself”?
From whom must she guard her “modesty”?
What prepubescent “ornaments” must she hide from men–particularly–as Islamic law applies to Muslims, alone–Muslim men?
Did any so-called journalists ask those questions at the time?
And will those questions be asked as the lawsuit runs its course?
Wellington says
Good question, PRCS, and my answer would be that with Islam no female is ever too young. All part of the giant sickness which is Mo’s creed.
Just as there is no reason for any black to be a Muslim considering what Mo himself said (and did) about blacks, so there is no reason for any female to be Muslim, again considering what Mo himself said (and did) about females.
A Hell of a lot of confused people out there—like all black Muslims, whichever gender, and ALL Muslim females.
Devasur says
Why should hijab be allowed in a so called secular schools where other religions are banned. Be consistent with your ideology leftists. Robert sir, should ask this question.