Chicago: ‘Ms. Diversity’ active in anti-semitic group

Just another friendly tale of diversity via the Chicago Tribune, Ms. Diversity not your typical pageant winner. But first, the obligatory and omnipresent Islamic victim-hood: 

Palestinian-American Ms. Diversity winner turned experiences with intolerance into push for cultural understanding

Danyah Zayed remembers the crushing insults and angry stares.

She and other Muslim students were leaving their elementary school near the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview after the planes hit the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001, when passers-by threatened them, called them terrorists and asked why they were in the United States.

Stung by the experience, Zayed vowed to grow up to be a compassionate Muslim, unlike the men who masterminded the terrorist attacks, and to fight all types of discrimination.

“I wanted people to understand who I am as a Muslim and Palestinian,” said Zayed, now a senior honors student at St. Xavier University in Chicago.

…

Zayed, a first-generation American, is active in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and has protested outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago.

A push for cultural understanding?

But when two Israeli-Americans showed up at a recent SJP meeting at St. Xavier, Zayed invited them to return for a panel discussion on campus this spring to hash out their differences.

“She’s very determined to make a difference,” Ghouleh said.

Zayed, who grew up in Burbank, said she inherited her work ethic from her mother, grandmother and aunts. Her mom and several aunts are teachers. One aunt is an attorney with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, and her grandmother is studying toward her GED.

Auntie is an attorney for DHS, while niece protests Israel and is active in anti-semitic, terror-linked group – maybe that’s what they meant by not typical.

Zayed was crowned Ms. Diversity by the magazine’s panel of judges at the Oak Lawn Hilton, where she’ll hand over the crown to the 2011 winner at the next ceremony, on March 12.

The Chicago Tribune and the founder/CEO, Sammer Ghouleh, of the magazine that held the Ms. Diversity contest have worked together before to promote Arab/Muslim media efforts as noted at Militant Islam Monitor.