By M.D. Kittle | Tennessee Star
Metro Nashville Council Member-At-Large Zulfat Suara has refused to condemn the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 Israelis, but claims that “standing up for innocent Palestinian children doesn’t make one antisemitic.”
Suara, the co-founder and former leader of the Nashville-based American Muslim Advisory Council, was first elected as one of the five at-large members of the 40 member Metro Nashville Council in 2019. She was re-elected to another four year term in August of this year.
According to her website, “Zulfat Suara is originally from Nigeria but came to the U.S. in 1993. She chose to make Tennessee her home when the opportunity for her husband to do a fellowship at Vanderbilt presented itself. She has been active in community service and leadership since she moved here in 1998, all while working full-time as a CPA. Zulfat founded an accounting firm that has worked with county governments in Hardeman, Haywood, Lake, and McNairy counties. She is currently the Executive Director of Grants and Contracts at Meharry Medical College.”
“Today I attended a vigil for Nashvillians who have lost loved ones in Gaza. Standing up for innocent Palestinian children doesn’t make one antisemitic, it only makes one human,” the at-large councilwoman wrote recently on her X account. “As a CM for all Nashvillians, in our mourning of human lives, we must not forget about the Palestinians,” Suara tweeted last Sunday, October 22.
The Tennessee Star asked Suara via email whether she is also standing up for Israel and the many innocent Israelis butchered systematically by Hamas terrorists in the carefully planned October 7 surprise attack on Israel:
I see on your social network accounts that you have expressed concern for and solidarity with Palestine in the current conflict with Israel. You note that “Standing up for innocent Palestinian children doesn’t make one antisemitic.” Are you standing up for Israel? Are you standing up for the many innocent Israelis butchered by Hamas?
It would seem the company you have kept sends a different message. As co-founder of the American Muslim Advisory Council you have worked with a number of anti-Israel individuals who have expressed antisemitic sentiments, including Linda Sarsour and Ash-Lee Henderson.
Do you care to comment on your past and present positions?
Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.
In an emailed response to The Star, Suara refused to condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks, and stated she already answered that question in social media posts “in response to others who asked.”
But a review of the council member’s social network pages shows no direct mention of the attack on Israel by Hamas.
Suara instead said in her response to The Star, “I stand with innocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians. I do not stand with Hamas and I do not stand with the Israeli government.” (emphasis added)
Though she stated, “I do not stand with Hamas,” Suara consistently refused to condemn the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 Israelis.
Suara noted that her campaign treasurer is Palestinian, and her finance director is Jewish.
“I will continue to stand for innocent lives on both sides,” the council member said.
Suara took to X (formerly Twitter) in a four part thread on Saturday to elaborate on her response to The Star’s question:
You can read the full four part thread of X postings by Suara here:
Recently, a journalist approached me with a question, asking if I was accepting of the loss of Jewish children’s lives during the ongoing conflict. My answer is an unequivocal “no.” And I’ve asserted this stance multiple times. 1/4
As a Nashville councilwoman who represents all citizens, it is important to push back on this one-sided narrative: What is so wrong with speaking up for Palestinians? And Why is no one asking if the loss of Palestinian children is acceptable? Are their lives of lesser worth? 2/4
Or should their sufferings be met with indifference instead?
As a mother, the pain of any child, irrespective of their ethnicity or nationality, resonates with me. Compassion should never be a selective sentiment. All children deserve a life free from the shadows of conflict 3/4So Please stop asking me if I am okay with Jewish children dying- I AM NOT. Instead we should be asking why it is OK for this same mercy and compassion to not be shown to Palestinians. 4/4
Suara did not respond to The Star’s question about the many anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian activists she has worked with and endorsed.
She concluded her email with a request of The Star:
“Please send me where you are asking other elected officials- state and national if their stand with Israel means they are okay with the killing of innocent Palestinians. I am interested in knowing if this double standard or the belief that there is a lack of empathy for others is limited to my being a Muslim.”
The Star responded via email, noting that her statement appeared to be an “attempt at equivalency in Israel’s rightful military campaign to root out terrorist group Hamas in a war following an intentional attack on innocent civilians,” adding that there was nothing on her X or Facebook accounts noting her condemnation of Hamas or her concern for the innocent Israeli citizens killed in the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.
Suara did not respond to The Star’s follow-up request for any evidence that she has condemned the Hamas terrorist attacks.
A few days earlier, Suara (pictured above) retweeted this statement: “Please tell the following generations about us, if we don’t exist anymore, about how beautiful and charming the Palestinian people were and how committed they were to their land and cause.”
She’s been silent on her social media accounts about the mass murder, rapes, and other atrocities committed against more than 1,400 Israelis by the less-than-charming Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas. Suara, a Nigerian-American far-left activist who in 2019 became the first Muslim elected to the Metro Nashville Council, has been silent on Hamas’ call for the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel.
Suara, the co-founder of the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC), served as chairwoman and public leader of the Nashville-based organization from 2012 until her election to the Metro Nashville Council in 2019.
In 2016, Suara invited anti-Israel agitator and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement advocate Linda Sarsour to be the featured guest speaker of an AMAC confab. The Knoxville event was billed as “Unity at all Intersections.”
“Let us dine and radicalize you,” the event promotion declared.
Sarsour, according to DailyRollCall, has refused to say that Israel has a right to exist and refuses to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who calls Jews “termites” and has been called “quite possibly America’s most popular anti-Semite.”
Suara also is a full-throated supporter of two of the most radically anti-Israel members of Congress — U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05).
Omar, a native Somali Muslim who has repeatedly made anti-Semitic comments, was earlier this year kicked off the House’s Committee on Foreign Affairs for her offensive statements.
Tlaib has come under heavy criticism for her refusal to accept Palestinian responsibility for a recent rocket attack on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians. In an article published on Wednesday, the antisemitism tracker Canary Mission reported Tlaib has “extensive fundraising ties to Hamas insiders,” including working with Hamas activist Salah Sarsour, who co-hosted a 2018 election campaign. Salah Sarsour, who posed for holy pictures with Linda Sarsour, is a former Hamas operative jailed by the Israeli authorities in the 1990s, according to the Jerusalem Post. She acknowledges having many male relatives in Israeli prisons.
Councilwoman Suara served as co-panelist for a presentation titled “How to Do Faith-Based Advocacy Effectively” with Tlaib during the 2018 Islamic Society of North America conference.
She has publicly posted being “inspired” by Tlaib and Omar.
In 2018, Suara invited national BDS activist and Movement for Black Lives (MB4L) leader Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and University of Tennessee-Knoxville Students for Justice in Palestine founder Amira Sakalla, (who has called for Intifada) to serve as the featured speaker for an American Muslim Advisory Council event titled, “Linking Liberation Struggles: Challenging anti-Black racism, Zionism & Islamophobia.”
“We recognize there is a total intersection between what is happening to the Palestinian community overseas and what has happened with apartheid and Jim Crow to people who have identified as African-American,” Henderson said, spewing the modern Marxist talking points at a 2014 protest for Palestine led by the leftist Concerned Citizens for Justice.
And Henderson was the featured speaker promoting BDS for groups, including Friends of Sabeel North America, which serves as the “voice for Palestinian Christians against Israel’s policies and has been a driving force behind various BDS campaigns against Israel…,” according to the liberal Anti-Defamation League.
“Sabeel’s efforts to demonize Israel and Israelis have also featured charges of deicide against Jews; they have compared Palestinians to a modern-day Jesus and accused Israel of engaging in a “crucifixion” of these Palestinians,” ADL states.
Suara remains a named board member remains a named board member of the AMAC, which has promoted the anti-Israel marches in Nashville including the one announced for Sunday evening, October 29th.
During the first event, protesters carried signs with swastikas, chanted the defining slogan of the BDS campaign “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”, meaning that Israel will cease to exist, and called for “intifada” which is well understood to mean violence against Israelis.
As The Star reported earlier this month, anti-Semitism is a growing problem in Tennessee, not just in more urban states in the United States.
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Zulfat Suara” by Zulfat Suara.
