Rose Hamid, the Muslim woman ejected from the Donald Trump rally in South Carolina yesterday, got exactly what she wanted. 

Hamid, a US Airways flight attendant and co-founder of Muslim Women of the Carolinas, was clever in strategically placing herself behind and above Trump so she could be visible when she stood up sporting her hijab. 

Hamid was even more clever to protest silently. Trump has been repeatedly disrupted by hecklers and when hecklers shout they do themselves no favors. But Hamid’s only statement was a shirt that read, “Salaam, I Come in Peace.” Because she didn’t say anything, Trump wasn’t sure what was going on when he heard a commotion in the audience. When she was removed from the arena, her silence stood in sharp contrast to the heckling and jeering she received from Trump supporters. Because Trump supporters played right into Hamid’s hands we get these headlines:

CNN: Silently protesting Muslim woman ejected from Trump rally

The Washington Post: Peaceful Muslim woman kicked out of Trump rally

ThinkProgress: Muslim Woman Gets Kicked of Donald Trump Rally For Being Muslim

The last headline is, of course, nonsense. Had Hamid remained seated there would have been no incident. But Hamid wanted an incident. And so she stood in silence. With all that, Rose Hamid goes from local Muslim activist to national, if not international political figure. She has now become the Sandra Fluke of the 2016 campaign.

Don’t be surprised if Hamid turns up at President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Let’s also not be surprised if Hamid is invited to appear with Hillary Clinton as the South Carolina Primary takes place next month. Should Trump win the GOP nomination, I would be the farm that Hamid will be invited to be a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention this summer as Fluke was in 2012. 

What struck me the most about Hamid’s appearance was that she (as well as several other people with whom she sat at the rally) were wearing yellow Stars of David bearing the world “Muslim”. Of course, during the Nazi era, Jews were forced to wear yellow stars with the word “Juden”. 

Yet it is worth noting that Hamid is Palestinian. This is not an insignificant detail when you consider that Holocaust denial is rampant in Gaza and the West Bank (and throughout much of the Arab-Muslim world). Let us remember that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wrote his Ph.D thesis on the connection between the Nazis and the Zionist Movement. 

For her part, in a September 2009 interview with The Islamic Bulletin, Hamid stated, “I try to stand with others, too. I find myself constantly defending the Jewish faith to Palestinians who view Jews only as the oppressors.” Nevertheless, I am curious as to what Hamid’s views are concerning Palestinian Holocaust denial.

I am also curious if she is prepared to condemn Hamas. Palestinian Muslims are not particularly inclined to do this as David Horowitz demonstrated a few years back with a Palestinian woman at the University of California San Diego. Hamid might very well be tolerant towards Jews, but that doesn’t mean she is tolerant towards Israel. Unfortunately, given that Hamid is now an anti-Trump symbol, don’t expect the mainstream media to be posing these questions. They will be too busy using Hamid to get Hillary Clinton elected President.