Sarah Idan is a former Miss Iraq who, at the Miss Universe pageant in 2017, met and became close friends with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman. She took a selfie of them together, and posted it on social media, with the caption “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.” To make matters worse, in the swimsuit competition, she appeared in a bikini. Both these transgressions — the selfie with Miss Israel, and the bikini she wore — caused a terrific backlash from angry Muslims; Idan was stripped of her Iraqi citizenship, and was deluged with death threats. Her widowed mother and siblings were forced to flee Iraq. The two beauty queens continued to meet and post joint messages, with photos, on Instagram. The accounts of both girls were, of course, hacked.
In June 2018, Sarah Idan accepted Adar Gandelsman’s invitation to visit Israel. After all, once she had received thousands of death threats, a few thousand more weren’t going to stop her from traveling to Israel. In for a penny, in for a pound. She fell in love, she says, with Israel, and with its people, who greeted her in the market of Mahane Yehuda like a movie star. In Israel, she said later, she felt right at home in an environment that was strangely familiar: the sights and sounds of a Middle East open market, so much like what she had experienced in Baghdad and Damascus.
While in Israel, she spoke with many Jews from Arab countries, and learned about the 850,000 Jews who had had to flee Arab lands during and after the 1948 war. She posted photos of herself visiting Israeli sites, and eating Iraqi food in Jerusalem restaurants. Later she reminisced about her trip: “It actually felt weird—the people look like my people. And the city looks like Damascus, like Syria, and I’ve been there, so everything seems familiar to me.”
In August 2019, she testified on behalf of Israel at a meeting in Geneva of the UN Human Rights Council, in what must have been a most uncomfortable appearance for the Arab and Muslim delegates.
In December 2019, at the invitation of Israel’s UN ambassador, Sarah Idan attended an event held at Israel’s UN Mission to mark the expulsion of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East following the establishment of the State of Israel. She spoke feelingly about what she had learned about this issue when she visited Israel, according to a report in Algemeiner: “I was very surprised and especially touched by the experience of visiting the Babylonian Heritage Museum in Or Yehuda — which serves as a center to honor the heritage and history of Iraqi Jews.”
She said she felt a strong bond with Iraqi-born Jews in Israel: “I was born in Baghdad and felt very connected to the Iraqi Jews I met in Jerusalem, who welcomed me with open arms and with so much love, even though my country treated them unfairly. I was overwhelmed when I saw pictures of Iraqi government stamps on their passport saying ‘one-way exit — not allowed to return.’ I told them I was utterly ashamed.
“Sadly, the 3,000-year chapter of Jewish life in Iraq, along with the larger Middle East and North Africa, came to an abrupt and traumatic end – and much of this is the result of antisemitism,” she said.
She has become a kind of unofficial ambassador for Israel, speaking up passionately for the Jewish state from her unusual perspective as a Muslim Iraqi. She believes the conflict is perpetuated by “the belief systems taught in Muslim countries, which are antisemitic” and is reinforced by biased media.
Idan had worked as an interpreter for the American army in Iraq, and as a result she was given a green card. She moved to America, and in 2015 became an American citizen. She is now living in California.
In March, she announced she would be running for Congress in 2024, as a Democrat, from the 30th Congressional District. She should win in a walk. She’s made all the right enemies. She’s already had a few exchanges on Twitter with the unbearable Ilhan Omar, responding to one of Omar’s tweets with this:
“I don’t stand for your anti-American, antisemitic, Muslim Brotherhood agenda, using this democracy to further your…Islamic socialism goals of dividing and weakening our country.”
And in announcing her candidacy for Congress, she said: “I would just be the opposite of Ilhan Omar. I’m a Democrat and liberal, but I don’t think like her – I don’t hate this country.” Idan has said she wants to make war on “wokeism.”
And once in the House, her intelligence, her knowledge of Iraqi Muslims and Israeli Jews, her clear-eyed fury at antisemites, and – let’s face it — her good looks, will be a nightmare for Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and the sour-faced crew at CAIR. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have any interest in a liberal Democrat from California. But for Sarah Idan, I’ll happily make an exception.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The real questions here are:
‣ Why is she still a muslimah?
‣ Why is she a Democrat?
Elizabeth says
I was wondering the same thing. She would be wiser to run as a Republican. Going as a Democrat & linking with the Squad, may change her mind. I question whether she will be able to change their minds. I think it’s a risk.
DavidW says
If she runs as a Republican she won’t win, since the GOP in California is pretty weak and probably wouldn’t give her much support. Maybe she can reconsider being a Dem once she is in and sees how the Dems really feel about minorities and America.
Donovan Nuera says
She needs to learn about her fellow Iraqis who are persecuted Chaldean Christians; there are a lot in San Diego. They might be able to convert her from islam and then she could point out that islam is the ONLY religion in the world that kills apostates.
Mary Jo Pierce says
Well, I’m not sure but I’m always looking for a reason to hope. Praying for all of us 🙏 ❤️
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Sarah Idan doesn’t want to advertise her total lack of belief; she’already is a target, but why should she advertise her unbelief, and make things even more dangerous for her? She claims to be a “secular” or “cultural” Muslim. . That’s good enough for me. I think it means “I am no longer a Muslim believer but please don’t make me say it.”
As for her being a Democrat, do you think that party, which is likely to continue in power in 2024, should simply be abandoned to the likes of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders? I don’t. I want Ritchie Torres to win, and Saran Idan, and Jake Auchincloss, and…well, I’m sure there are others.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Her entire family – her mother & siblings – have already migrated to the US. Why would she be in any more danger than she already is for supporting Israel? Chances are that the people who would kill her for the latter already consider her an infidel for not hating the Joooooooooozzzz
As for the Dems, they already are controlled by the AOCs, Ilhan Omars & the US communist movement. “Moderates” have no hope of recapturing this party. Just look at 2020 and add up the percentages gotten by John Delaney, Michael Bennett, Steve Bullock, Tim Ryan and John Hickenlooper – the 5 candidates perceived as moderate by both the media and the public. Or look at the polls right now on the Democrat side: despite Biden’s unpopularity, Robert F Kennedy Jr can barely garner 20% of the vote. Truth is that most Centrists in that party have either gone independent (like Tulsi Gabbard) or gone all the way to the GOP (like Jeff van Drew and Vernon Jones)
The best outcome would be a growth in the Libertarian party, since the development of another third party like Perot’s Reform party is unlikely. But the Dems cannot be swung back to the Center. For one, the biggest force that used to pull them to the center – their trade unions (who pulled them to be financially Leftist but socially Right) are hollowed out, and it’s now the woke leaders of “Big Tech” – Bezos, Gates, Zuckerburg, Page, et al who are bankrolling the party. And they are far to the Left of the Dems, so that anybody who wants to be rich and successful in that party has to be a LGBTQIA+BLM+Antifa worshiping bot
James Lincoln says
࿗Infidel࿘ says,
“As for the Dems, they already are controlled by the AOCs, Ilhan Omars & the US communist movement. “Moderates” have no hope of recapturing this party.”
Yes.
The new crop of Democrats have swung so far to the left, they have left the dwindling number of centrist JFK type Democrats without a traditional Democratic party to represent them.
Sebastien Zorn says
She says she is a traditional liberal apart from her opposition to the antisemitic, anti-American woke radicals who have hijacked the Democratic party. Is there room for liberals in today’s Republican party?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Depends on how you describe “Liberals”. The classic Liberals, like the free-speech ones, such as Alan Derschowitz, Dave Rubin, Vivek Ramaswamy (who’s running in the GOP primaries), Glenn Greenwald, Ami Horowitz and several others who I forget at the moment, have bolted the Democrat party: from this list, only Derschowitz is still a (D)
As Derschowitz noted, today the roles are reversed. Liberals, who used to loathe the Espionage Act, hated the FBI, CIA & the security state apparatus, now root for them b’cos those institutions are on their side. Same w/ Wall Street. Also, in the past, the GOP was identified w/ Corporate America. Today, it’s the Dems. First of all, Silicon Valley, being where it is, is more to the Left of even Dems, and then you have the Venture Capital/Asset Management companies of BlackRock, State Street & Vanguard putting all those ESG requirements on companies. Also, a whole bunch of woke people staffing the boardrooms of companies has also tilted them Left. Which is why you see so many companies falling all over themselves to celebrate Pride Month
On the flip side, Republicans, who used to side w/ Corporate America over the Family Values crowd, has seen their support from the former evaporate due to the above changes. As a result, they’ve re-aligned w/ working class America, which was not too long ago the domain of the Dick Gephardts & the David Boniors. During the Reagan & (both the) Bush years, free trade was a mantra of the GOP, and anyone who wanted tariffs had to go to the Dems. Today, that has completely flipped: the Dems are the ones who’re for waiving tariffs, and only the GOP establishment still supports that, and their numbers are dwindling
Similarly, while the corporate boardrooms may root for sex change surgeries, working class America, no matter how socialistic they may be in terms of class envy, are very conservative when it comes to these issues. First of all, they tend to be pro Second Amendment, support limits on abortion & so on, Even those that weren’t and traditionally went w/ the Dems, this new Trans movement would have completely flipped them
Finally, there was a time when all non-Christian groups, such as Jews & Hindus, automatically defaulted to the Dems. In fact, in 2000, George W Bush, trying to neutralize the Jewish support of the Dems, tried wooing the muslim vote in Michigan. But today, the Dems are wholly owned by the CAIR lobby, as well as bought and paid for by Qatar, Iran & Pakistan. That has sent a lot of Jews & Hindus, although unfortunately not all, into Independents, if not Republicans. And that shift is still underway
On the war front, there was a time when many, if not most, Republicans were like John Bolton, and so if one was anti-War, one automatically defaulted to the Dems. But in Obama’s second term, that changed, as the US started to run regime change wars like the one in Libya. In 2016, Hillary was the one who supported all the wars in Afghanistan & even Iraq, while Trump was the one talking about ending them, bringing troops home, cutting spending on the security of Europe & S Korea (while still bolstering the military & taking particular care of veterans). Most classic anti-war Liberals would be more at home w/ Trump rather than any Dem. Of the anti-War Dems, Tulsi’s now independent, while Kucinich is now the chair of the Kennedy campaign
So if by “liberals” you mean the classic, free-speech liberals who were opposed to the parts of the US government, such as the Intel & the military adventurism of the US, then the new GOP is its home. Old establishment Republicans have joined hands w/ moderate Dems & formed a new “Forward” party, which merges the losers of both parties and is likely to go nowhere
From the description of Ms Idan, if she apostatized completely, she’d be completely at home in today’s GOP. I’m not sure that muslims are completely believable by most conservatives, which is why Dr Oz went down to a complete loser like John Fetterman, and same would be true of any muslim. I myself would happily vote for any Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, native faith & so on, but I’d balk at voting for a muslim, given everything we know about islam. Anyway, I’m not a California voter, so for me, her candidature is moot
RG says
Excellent comment! I wish more people saw that!
James Lincoln says
Excellent and accurate post, Infidel.
A homerun.
BastionofFreedom says
A Grandslam, Infidel. I’ve copied your post for future usage.
Watto35 says
What a wonderful person. It just goes to show what a little love can do.
Shalom says
What a wonderful woman. We need many more like this.
Max says
Her politics and Kennedy Junior’s politics if of the minority in the Democratic party. It’s highly unlikely they will welcome her . Possiblity of her being rigged out at the primaries are as sure as the sunset.
Don McKellar says
California Democrat primaries? Rigged it will be.