This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A post on the aggregator site Drudge Report sparked a cascade of hate mail and phone calls to the American Muslim Women political action committee (Pac) on Tuesday.

Mirriam Seddiq, a criminal defense attorney and the founder of the group, woke up to an email with a link to a site that sold ammunition covered in pork.

“It’s bullets made to kill Muslims,” said Seddiq.

After showing the email to her Pac colleagues, she realized that Drudge Report had highlighted their seven-week-old Pac at the top of its site. A link that read “Hijab for Hillary” referred to a press release of the group endorsing Hillary Clinton last week.

Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) Yesterday we got hoaxed, so let's return to the basics: Unhinged Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/i6Ny90tvWj

While the link meant their site received a wave in traffic, the press release also contained Seddiq and her colleagues’ names and phone numbers.

“We’ve gotten dozens of hate mail to the website. And then our [communications director] said she had gotten about a dozen if not more hate emails,” Seddiq told the Guardian. “And then the phone calls started.”

Throughout the day, Seddiq and the Pac’s other board members received phone calls telling them to go back to their country, referred to them as towel heads, and some became threatening, Seddiq said.

The American Muslim Women Pac was founded by Seddiq shortly after the Democratic and Republican conventions. The Pac aims to get Muslim women more involved in the election cycle, partly by ensuring more of them register to vote.

Republican nominee Donald Trump’s rhetoric towards Muslims was a catalyst for the formation of the Pac. Trump has stoked anti-Muslim sentiment on several occasions throughout the campaign, including an initiative to ban all Muslims from coming into the country, refusing to rule out the use of a special ID cards for Muslims, and calling for increased surveillance of mosques.

He targeted Muslim women specifically during the Democratic convention when he attacked Ghazala Khan, a Gold Star mother and wife of Khizr Khan, who told Trump to read the US constitution. Trump suggested that Khan was silent when standing next to her husband because she wasn’t allowed to say anything.

His comments sparked outrage among many, including Seddiq. She said that some Muslim-majority countries have already had female heads of state.

What's it like being a Muslim during the US presidential elections? Read more

“This is not an unusual thing to have women involved in politics,” said Seddiq.

Khan now supports the group and was present when they announced their endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

Muslims have faced an increase in hate crimes since the presidential campaigns started. Hate crimes against Muslims hit their highest levels since 9/11 last year, according to a study by California State University San Bernardino. It also found, based on available data for 2016, that hate crimes against Muslims in New York City have doubled since last year.

Seddiq said that the hate emails and phone calls were exactly the reason they started the Pac to begin with.

In response to the hate emails, the Pac is selling pink “Hijab for Hillary” T-shirts that can be ordered on their site.

“We thank Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report for that,” Seddiq said.