A pageant queen with her eyes on the Miss America crown appeared at a pro-Palestine rally in New York to say the words "jihadists" at the crowd.
Justine Brooke Murray, a self-labeled "anti-PC pageant queen," went down to a pro-Palestinian protest at the Rockefeller Center in New York City on Wednesday night. People had gathered there to call for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas. As of December 1, more than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed—roughly two-thirds of them women and minors—according to the local Health Ministry, per the Associated Press. Israel resumed fighting in Gaza on Friday, minutes after a temporary ceasefire deal ended, with the Israelis accusing Hamas of having violated the truce.
Israel began its strongest campaign of airstrikes and military ground force in the Palestinian region after the military arm of Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7. Hamas' raid on Israel killed around 1,200 people, and the militants took more than 240 hostage. Many of them were released recently in a temporary pause on fighting, and Israel agreed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from its jails.
Freelance reporter Talia Jane filmed Murray at the rally, calling people "jihadists." When Jane confronted her to say that the protestors were calling for an "end to the genocide" in Gaza, Murray reportedly replied "that's not happening."
Jane shared video of Murray at the protest to X, formerly Twitter, where it has gone viral with more than 2.1 million views. The reporter accused Murray of being racist for using the term "jihadist." Jane then chased Murray away from the protest while shouting at her. Murray told Newsweek she was not shouting at the protesters, and some called her b**** and an antisemitic slur.
"Having covered a lot of events where far-right instigators hurl out charged labels at demonstrators, my thoughts were: 'This person is here with harmful intent, and either she or someone else is going to get hurt if she keeps this up because cops have no qualms about rushing in and getting physical,'" Jane told Newsweek.
Jane said she decided to confront Murray to prevent an escalation saying: "Either I cause a little friction, or she continues instigating until things escalate."
Murray later doubled down on her views on her own X account. "You guys proudly call for jihad. Own it," she wrote in response to people attacking her on X.
The term Jihad translates from Arabic as a "struggle" or striving to do one's utmost and "has often been erroneously translated in the West as 'holy war'," according to Britannica.
Within the context of Islam, Jihad refers to the struggle "to purify one's heart, do good, avoid evil and make oneself a better person" and "a moral principle to struggle against any obstacle that stands in the way of the good," per human-rights advocacy group Learning For Justice.
However, not all Palestinians are Muslim. Around 2 percent of the 14.3 million Palestinians across the world are Christians of various denominations, mainly Greek Orthodox and Catholic, according to the Wafa News Agency.
Murray, who competed in this year's Miss New Jersey after winning the Miss North New Jersey local pageant, could be banned from competing in other pageants following her comments. Murray was also crowned Miss Central Jersey on October 7.
"Oh dear, I just heard from someone in the pageant world that Justine calling the protest 'jihadists' to stoke hate (which she is currently doubling down on on twitter) could get her in trouble with/DQ'd [disqualified] from the Miss America Organization & Miss New Jersey chapter," Jane tweeted.
Newsweek contacted Miss New Jersey by email for comment.
Murray, a Jewish student at Syracuse University and producer at conservative news channel is no stranger to publicly supporting Israel and its war efforts against Hamas. She also attended a pro-Palestine rally in October, labeling it "Jihad Day" on her Instagram stories.
"I'm not going to live my life in fear and neither should you," Murray told her followers, as reported by the New York Post.
"I'm not going to let antisemites and enemies of Western civilization force me to live in fear. That's giving them a win.
"Expressing your Judaism is an act of bravery these days," Murray said.
Update 12/01/23, 10:27 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Murray.
Update 12/04/23, 11:04 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from reporter Talia Jane.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
