[August 15, 2019] I’ve written a great many articles on moral courage and have highlighted a number of men and women who show what courage means. What I have not done is write about a beauty queen. Today, my blog post is about Miss Iraq Sarah Idan.1 She earns my respect for posting a picture of her with Miss Israel and then refusing to back down.
It is common knowledge that the leadership of Muslim countries does not tolerate Jews, especially if they are from Israel. This applies to Iraq, which can be considered moderate. The posting of Miss Iraq’s photo with Miss Israel set off a storm of outrage forcing her and her family to flee the country. Iraq has also threatened to cancel her citizenship.
To make my point here about her moral courage, Sarah Idan (now living in California) has gotten into a social media dustup with U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar. Rep. Ilhan Omar is a well-known anti-Semitic who has made a name for herself as part of the “squad” in the U.S. Congress by calling the President racist. On Twitter, Sarah Idan is calling Ilhan Omar anti-American and anti-Semitic.
Well, you would think the world is coming to an end when Rep. Omar saw that tweet. You can read more about the social media back and forth between these two women (see link here). Omar has claimed that she speaks for all Muslims in the U.S. and abroad. Miss Iraq is calling her out on it and saying explicitly that Omar does not speak for her.
What we see here is something that represents a bigger issue than a twitter war between two young women. Those of us in most of the world is unaware that there is a major struggle going on between radical, political opportunists like Ilhan Omar (who support Islamic terrorism along with those who support them) and responsible Muslims like Sarah Idan.
Sarah Idan has also called out the government leadership of Iraq for oppressing its people. Iraq is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and thus responsible for the “promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.” Miss Iraq finds this ironic.
Miss Iraq Sarah Idan is a great example of someone who has the moral courage to stand up to evil. She is very impressive.
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1. Miss Iraq Sarah Idan’s twitter page can be found here: https://twitter.com/RealSarahIdan. I highly recommend reading her posts.
I very much enjoyed your article today. This is what I’m looking for when I come to your website. I finally convinced a number of my colleagues to start reading your blog. Thank you!
Yeah! Same here. More people should be reading more info on leadership and how to make yourself a better person.
Excellent article. It was much better than I expected after reading the title. Keep up the great work here, Gen. Satterfield.
A beauty queen showing moral courage? I would have never guessed it to happen. Most of them are not very bright and those that are smart usually don’t take on controversial topics at all. In this case, please note, that the beauty queen is not American. That in itself, says something (not something good) about American beauty queens. It took a beautiful woman from Iraq to show us how its done. I’m glad she came to America.
This beauty queen is under threat of being killed; even while living in the US. Muslim country leadership doesn’t take going “off the reservation” too kindly. She also has plenty of physical courage too.
Thoughtful analysis, Darryl. I’m glad I took the time to read the comments section today. I was just going around the Internet to read the news so I had extra time. I’m glad I did. I’ll be bringing her up to my liberal women friends at work today.
Go girl! Yeah!
Be careful not to interfere too much with the intellectual bubble surrounding their airheads.
Thanks for telling us about Miss Iraq. Great story worth telling to others.
JT, you got that right. I printed off this article and will be handing it out to some of my friends at work. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too.
I’m glad you guys liked it.
I appreciate you ‘highlighting’ those people you see as having moral courage. It is so rare these days. Just look at the Democratic presidential candidates pandering themselves to various groups. Such a disgrace. At least Miss Iraq can hold her head high. I would vote for her over the pathetic politicians now there running for office.
Who would have known? Usually beauty queens are airheads, at least that is the stereotype. Obviously, Miss Sarah is one smart lady. And, more importantly, she is tough.
You rarely get a complete package. This lady is one of the rare ones.
You can never judge a book by its cover. Although you can get a few hints. I’ve worked with Iraqis and found many of them to be wonderful people.
I was wondering if you ever had the chance to work with some of the women in Iraq? Were they even allowed to speak with you?
Georgie, the short answer is YES, I did get a chance to meet some business women (all unmarried). They were great and extremely focused. I have no idea what religion they were – Sunni or Shia. To answer Otto’s question, these women did not cover their face. I’m not sure why these women operated outside what I know about the Muslim religion, just what I saw.
I was thinking the same thing that Georgie asked. Do they have to keep their face’s covered?
Wow, moral courage comes in many packages and in people you would never expect it to manifest itself.