American-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour said that Muslims should not need to defend themselves in the media against charges of terrorism, because "the root of the problem does not come from within the Muslim community. It comes from a politicized foreign policy of war on our people." Sarsour, former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, made her statements at the annual ISNA convention. The video was posted on YouTube on June 30.

Linda Sarsour: "When we talk about ISIS, everyone is always like: ‘ISIS this, ISIS that…’ Did anybody here…Was ISIS around 15 years ago? Ten years ago? Seven years ago? Why do I have to explain to everybody where ISIS came from? We have to challenge the frame that the media puts us in, to say- as an example- that we are the root of the problem when it comes to terrorism. The root of the problem doesn’t come from within the Muslim community. It comes from a politicized foreign policy of war on our people, and those most directly impacted by groups like ISIS and wars are Muslims. So, I don’t know why we have to protect ourselves in the media when we are not the ones who created the problem."