A defamation suit by Jewish teacher Tamar Herman against Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad will proceed after a New Jersey court ruling rejected Muhammad’s challenge.
A New Jersey appellate court last month rejected a challenge to a defamation lawsuit brought by a Jewish public school teacher who said she was the victim of a smear campaign in which an Olympian accused her of Islamophobia following an innocuous interaction with a student.
According to the Lawfare Project, on Oct. 6 2021, Tamar Herman, who has served the New Jersey township of Maplewood for over two decades as a second grade teacher, drew back the hood of a female student’s sweatshirt during class, having assumed, because it was covering her eyes, that something unrelated to the day’s lesson had captivated the student’s attention. Herman knew that the student was a practicing Muslim whose wardrobe included the hijab and assumed the article was worn on that day. Discovering that it was not and that she unintentionally revealed the student’s hair, Herman, according to court documents, “immediately and gently brushed the hood back” and apologized.
The incident was soon forgotten, and the student did not protest. Herman continued her lesson.