American Muslim Women For Hillary Clinton Group Includes Ghazala Khan, Gold Star Mother

A new political action committee made up of Muslim American women is "with her," but they are paying a price for their support.

The American Muslim Women political action committee, which includes Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star mother Donald Trump publicly criticized after her appearance at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in July, reported a high amount of hate mail and internet harassment Tuesday following its launch last week and decision to support Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential election. The group attributes the backlash to a post on Drudge Report that referenced the PAC.

"We’ve gotten dozens of hate mail to the website. And then our [communications director] said she had gotten about a dozen if not more hate emails," Mirriam Seddiq, a criminal defense attorney and the PAC's founder, told the Guardian. "And then the phone calls started."

Seddiq said one such piece of hate mail featured a link to a website selling bullets covered in pork specifically designed to "kill Muslims" — many Muslims abstain from eating pork for religious reasons.

The Drudge report post that sparked the wave of hatred, which linked to the PAC's introductory press release earlier this week, warned of a dramatic increase in Muslim immigration that was outpacing other groups. The link to the PAC's press release, which calls for politicians to protect the interests of Muslim American women in the U.S., appears to suggest the group is part of a broader plan to impose Muslim cultural values on the U.S. at large, a popular conspiracy theory among alt-right news outlets, such as Drudge Report and Breitbart. An estimated 3.3 million Muslims currently reside in the U.S.

The Muslim American Women PAC is the first political action committee focused specifically on issues affecting Muslim American women. The Muslicm American Women PAC formally endorsed Clinton on Oct. 11.

"Our primary goal is to elect leaders and support policies that represent our values," said Seddiq in a press release. "In the simplest terms, we believe in basic human rights and the right of each individual to live their lives as they choose. Hillary Clinton is a candidate that not only understands those values, but has spent her life dedicated to them in her public service."

Clinton's opponent, GOP nominee Donald Trump, has been repeatedly criticized for stoking Islamophobic sentiments in voters. He has suggested a ban on Muslim immigration to address the threat of terrorism in the U.S. and called for greater law enforcement surveillance of Muslim American communities, while also criticizing those communities for not self-reporting suspicious persons or potential terrorists.