Michelle Obama honor Egyptian who ‘praised Hitler, terror attacks’

Samira Ibrahim

US First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are set to present the Women of Courage Award later this week to 10 women, one of whom has reportedly expressed virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American views on the Internet.

A State Department press release said that Samira Ibrahim, coordinator of the Egyptian Know Your Rights organization, will be given the award at a ceremony on Friday, March 8, in the US State Department building.

The Weekly Standard reported that Ibrahim has a long history of posting anti-Israel, anti-American and anti-Semitic comments on her Twitter account.

In July 2012, after hearing of the bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria, that killed five Israeli tourists and a local bus driver, Ibrahim tweeted that it was a “sweet day.”

“An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea,” she wrote. “Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”

Ibrahim frequently uses Twitter to air anti-Semitic views, the report said. In one post, from August 2012, she described the Saudi royal family as “dirtier than the Jews” and, just over two weeks later, expressed her support of Adolf Hitler’s attitude towards the Jews.

“I have discovered with the passage of days that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler,” she wrote.

On other occasions she praised the 9/11 attacks and called for further actions against Americans.

Ibrahim has denied allegations that she’s racist and explained the controversial messages as the result of her Twitter account having been taken over by others, the report said.

Ibrahim was catapulted to fame in March 2011 when she was forced, with six other women, to undergo “virginity tests” in Egypt after she was arrested during demonstrations in Cairo. She refused to remain silent about the ordeal and brought charges against the government.

According to the State Department profile on Ibrahim, she was once arrested in high school for writing a paper that criticized Arab leaders’ insincere support for the Palestinian cause.