NEW YORK – A Muslim Sri Lankan-American woman whose photo was misidentifiedby the Colombo government as a suspect in the Easter Day bombings is facingdeath threats against her and as distressing situation for her family inSri Lanka, according to media reports.“I received so many death threats because of this horrible mistake, so manypeople just calling for me to be hanged and all of these horrible, horribleacts,” Amara Majeed said during a news conference at the office for theMaryland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) inBaltimore.Ms. Majeed, who wears hijab. is an activist and author who wrote a book,titled The Foreigners, to combat stereotypes about Islam.Much of her activism and writing focuses on empowering Muslim women andpublic narratives about them. In high school, she created The HijabProject, a website aimed at countering the perception that Muslim women areoppressed into wearing hijabs.At the press conference, Ms. Majeed recounted learning about the errorwhile in her dormitory room at Brown University, which is based inProvidence, Rhode Island.“In the midst of finals season, I woke up in my dorm room to 35 missedcalls, all frantically informing me that I had been falsely identified asone of the terrorists involved in the recent Easter attacks in my belovedhomeland of Sri Lanka,” she was quoted as saying.Ms. Majeed said her family in Sri Lanka has been “bombarded with so manycalls and questions,” and her family in the United States has been“terrified” because of the vitriol she’s received online.Sri Lankan authorities used a photograph of Majeed, to identify AbdulCader Fathima Qadiya, one of six suspects in the bombings that killed over250 people.
Both Ms. Majeed and Zainab Chaudry, CAIR’s Maryland outreach director, saidthey did not know how authorities found her picture. Ms. Majeed suspectedthat people in Sri Lanka knew about her prior work as as an activist andwriter, and found her photo through those connections, but was not sure.The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington had said it was looking into thematter.Sri Lankan police eventually admitted to the error and apologized,according to the media reports. Both speakers said that the apology, whileappreciated, has not erased the hurt it caused.“The pictures and posts falsely implicating me have compromised my family’speace of mind and endangered our extended family’s lives,” Ms. Majeed said.“We appreciate that authorities have issued a correction, although we areconcerned that the correction will not receive nearly as much traction asthe error.”Added Zainab Chaudry: “In this era, where news travels in seconds, themisinformation has spread widely. Not everyone who read the initial postswill see the correction, and as religious tensions continue to grow in SriLanka, this incompetence in the aftermath of the devastating attack onEaster Sunday has placed Miss Majeed and her family in danger.”Ms. Chaudry said that Ms. Majeed’s family, while currently not seekinglegal redress, is working with CAIR to ensure their safety and “make surethe Sri Lankan government is taking every possible measure to undo as muchof the damage that has been done.”Both women also framed this experience in the broader context ofIslamophobia, here and in Sri Lanka, where the attacks that killed morethan 250 people inflamed existing sectarian tensions and scared people ofvarious faiths from going to religious services.“CAIR has extended our condolences to the families and loved ones of thosekilled in the senseless attacks,” Ms. Chaudry said. “We also condemn thehabitual scapegoating of Muslim communities and individuals like [Ms.Majeed], who are constantly forced to apologize or account for the wrongfulactions that they do not condone.”“It must be problematized that Muslim communities are faced with presumedguilt and criminality, and forced to condemn and apologize for acts ofterror and perform their humanity,” Ms. Majeed said. -APP