Activists condemn death threat against Muslim New Jersey congressional candidate

Women activists, lawmakers and leaders have joined a petition to denounce a death threat against 27-years-old Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, a congressional candidate who is the first Muslim woman to run for federal office in New Jersey.

Al-Khatahtbeh on Wednesday published an April 21 recording of the death threat on her Twitter account, which she said was not the first death threat she would get.

“Last night, I received this chilling phone call. A death threat. This isn’t my first death threat and I hesitated to share it, but it’s necessary to see the common experience of Muslims & minorities when hate is normalized by political leaders,” tweeted alongside the recording of the threat.

“It’s unnerving for anybody to hear somebody threaten their family, let alone have their actual personal information and detail how they would go about doing that,” said Al-Khatahtbeh.

“But for me, the most important thing was to not confirm any of the information that they had, not try to encourage them, that you know, that I was even scared by them, because in the face of hate like that, a lot of times, if you get scared, it’s like they win,” she added.

Many of Al-Khatahtbeh’s supporters have signed an open letter condemning the death threat. US Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar and Alicia Garza, cofounder of Black Lives Matter.

The letter which was signed by dozens of activists and leaders, says, “Al-Khatahtbeh is running to be a public servant for the benefit of all Americans. Yet, because she is a Muslim woman, she is faced with Islamophobic and racist vitriol that threatens her life and the lives of those she loves.”

Al-Khatahtbeh said that the incident has already being reported to the police. The Council on American-Islamic Relations in New Jersey stated that it had asked the FBI to conduct an investigation into the matter.

Al-Khatahtbeh is the founder of MuslimGirl.com. In the middle of coronavirus, she launched her fully digital campaign as she hopes for a landslide victory against her opponent Frank Pallone in the July 17 Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, Al-Khatahtbeh had been in recent years chosen for Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of top achievers. Former first lady Michelle Obama had also asked her to speak at the United State of Women Summit.