North Carolina: Jewish Journalist Arrested for Objecting to Islamic Jihad Terror Symbol in Grocery Store

Dragged from her home in handcuffs, paraded past her neighbors, and thrown in jail on a bogus charge, Jewish journalist Sloan Rachmuth was politically targeted, humiliated, and silenced for daring to object to a U.S. grocery store employee wearing an Islamic terror symbol—exposing a shocking case of corporate complicity, police overreach, and state-enforced antisemitism.

Holly Springs, NC – Sloan Rachmuth, a Jewish journalist and political commentator, was arrested at her home in front of her terrified children on November 3, 2024. Her alleged crime? According to Rachmuth, she objected to a supermarket employee at Harris Teeter wearing the controversial keffiyeh, a political symbol widely associated with Hamas and its ambitions to destroy Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.

Rachmuth, an outspoken advocate against antisemitism and a contributor to national media outlets on Middle Eastern affairs, explained to RAIR Foundation in an exclusive interview that she was handcuffed, marched through her neighborhood, and charged with cyberstalking, posting about the troubling incident online.

Rachmuth explained the police never asked for her side of the story, nor investigated the credibility of the alleged victim. Her arrest was based solely on an unverified accusation, raising serious concerns about law enforcement’s complicity in this apparent retaliation.

Rather than uphold its corporate attire and political expression policies, Harris Teeter—a subsidiary of The Kroger Co., the largest supermarket chain in America—ignored its regulations. Indeed, Harris Teeter allowed an employee to wear a threatening symbol of Islamic and Palestinian terrorism, visibly wrapping it around her head while working with customers.

Rachmuth describes this as not just corporate censorship or police overreach but state-backed antisemitic persecution and the criminalization of those who publicly object to terror support and antisemitism.

A Known Hamas Symbol in a U.S. Grocery Store
On October 31, 2024, Rachmuth entered Harris Teeter on Sunset Lake Road in Holly Springs, North Carolina, a store where she had shopped regularly for seven years. According to Rachmuth, as she checked out, she noticed an employee handling food while wearing a keffiyeh—a garment long associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and frequently worn by Hamas militants and supporters. In America, the keffiyeh has been used as a rallying icon for violence against Jews during demonstrations. Even countries like the United Arab Emirates and Egypt—both Arab nations—have banned its political use, recognizing its ties to Islamic groups.

Aware of its political significance, Rachmuth says she politely asked the employee, Amira M. Fattah, “It’s Halloween; are you wearing this as a costume?” Fattah replied, “No, it’s for Free Palestine,” confirming she wore the keffiyeh as a political statement rather than for religious reasons.

As a Jewish woman and a longtime customer, Rachmuth was deeply uncomfortable with a store employee openly supporting an ideology that symbolized the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people while handling food. While at the store, Rachmuth escalated her concerns to store manager Sheronna Irick, expecting Harris Teeter to uphold its policies against political speech in the workplace.

Instead of addressing the hostile work environment created by an employee wearing a symbol of Jewish oppression, Irick dismissed Rachmuth’s complaint outright and told her, “Like it or leave.”

Harris Teeter’s Failure to Act

Realizing that the store manager was indifferent to the issue, Rachmuth contacted Harris Teeter’s corporate office to inform them of what had occurred.

Frustrated by the store manager’s hostile response, Rachmuth turned to social media and posted about the encounter on X (formerly Twitter). She included a photo of the employee wearing the keffiyeh—showing only the employee’s profile—along with a caption questioning the corporation’s stance on political speech in the workplace.

 

 

The post quickly gained traction, sparking widespread debate about corporate complicity in antisemitism. Rather than address the concern, Harris Teeter’s employees escalated the situation by calling the police in what appears to be an act of retaliation against a customer.

According to arrest records and law enforcement, store manager Sheronna Irick played a pivotal role in facilitating this retaliation. made it clear that the Harris Teeter manager’s actions directly enabled Rachmuth’s falsely-charged arrest.

The Arrest: How Law Enforcement Was Weaponized Against a Jewish Mother

Three days later, after Rachmuth’s X post, Holly Springs Police officers—Elliott Warren, Benjamin Marino, and Edgar Hernandez—arrived at Rachmuth’s home and began pounding on her door.

To understand how this politically motivated arrest unfolded, examining events leading up to it is important.

A Timeline of the Political Arrest

• October 31, 2024: Rachmuth reports that she noticed a Harris Teeter employee wearing a keffiyeh, questioned her about it, and later posted images on social media.
• November 2, 2024: Holly Springs Police took a report from the employee and store manager, who alleged that Rachmuth called her a terrorist in the store—an accusation Rachmuth vehemently denies.
• The incident report officially labeled the case as ‘ANTI-ISLAMIC (MUSLIM),’ suggesting that law enforcement intentionally framed the situation as a bias-motivated offense. This classification raises serious concerns about whether police exaggerated or misrepresented the nature of the allegations to justify Rachmuth’s arrest. If Rachmuth’s concern over a political symbol was rebranded as a ‘hate crime,’ does this mean that simply objecting to Hamas-affiliated imagery is now considered a criminal act? The implications of such a designation are chilling—especially given that there was no investigation into whether the allegations against her were truthful.
• November 3, 2024: Officer Elliott Warren obtained an arrest warrant, accusing Rachmuth of using her cellphone to “harass, embarrass, or terrify” the employee.
• Later that day: Police arrived at her home with an arrest warrant in hand, leading to what many believe was an effort to humiliate her publicly.

Rachmuth, a mother of two, says she was shocked and confused by the officers’ presence. When she demanded the reason for her arrest, Officer Benjamin Marino chillingly replied, “Something you did made her uncomfortable, all right?”

Rachmuth’s arrest video shows she was then handcuffed with no questions asked. She says the police paraded her through her neighborhood before taking her to Wake County Jail. Adding to the cruelty of the arrest, this occurred on her 17th wedding anniversary, as her terrified children, concerned husband and protective German Shepherd watched helplessly.

Rachmuth states that despite the alleged crime being an unarrestable misdemeanor, she was forced to pay a $1,000 cash bail—a sum typically reserved for serious offenses—and was treated like a violent criminal during the booking process.

Democratic activists and their media swiftly circulated her mugshot and charge sheet online, weaponizing the arrest as a political smear campaign. Major left-wing outlets, including The Independent, The Intercept, MSN, Daily Mail, and other partisan publications, immediately jumped on the bandwagon, launching coordinated attacks against Rachmuth. They spread her mugshot far and wide, framing her as a villain—without even attempting to reach out to her for comment.

This rapid media blitz has left many questioning who contacted the media so swiftly and how they were able to mobilize coverage within hours of her arrest. Just as questions linger over who at Harris Teeter initially called the police, suspicions are growing that this was not an organic reaction but rather a carefully coordinated effort to weaponize the criminal justice system against a Jewish journalist. Many believe this was a deliberate, politically motivated attack meant to silence and intimidate her—setting a dangerous precedent for anyone daring to expose antisemitism or radical extremism in America.

A Baseless Charge Meant to Intimidate and Silence Critics

The charge against Rachmuth—cyberstalking—had no legal precedent or justification. The accusation alleged that she used her phone to take a photo with the intent to embarrass someone—an assertion unsupported by any state or federal law and one that raises serious First Amendment concerns.

Even Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, a Democrat, acknowledged the blatant injustice of the case and dropped all charges the next day, stating that the alleged conduct did not meet the elements of the offense.

However, this charge’s legal overreach and selective enforcement remain deeply troubling. North Carolina’s cyberstalking statute, G.S. 14-196.3, requires repeated electronic communications made to a person with the intent to “annoy, threaten, or harass” an individual. Rachmuth’s single post about a store policy does not meet this legal threshold. Furthermore, legal precedents in State v. Bishop (2016) and State v. Shackelford (2019) have reinforced the principle that vague and overly broad interpretations of online speech statutes violate constitutional protections of free speech and press freedom.

If this charge had moved forward, it would have set a chilling precedent for journalists, activists, and citizens engaged in lawful political speech. The case raises serious questions about lawfare and the use of activist law enforcement to target political dissenters.

While Freeman ultimately dropped the charges, the fact that the Holly Springs Police Department pursued them in the first place—despite clear constitutional and procedural concerns—demonstrates the selective weaponization of the law to intimidate and silence individuals exposing antisemitism and Islamic radicalism. The police department has yet to acknowledge any wrongdoing in Rachmuth’s case.

The damage is done. Rachmuth has been publicly humiliated, smeared as an extremist, and left to deal with the lasting emotional trauma inflicted on her and her children. Left-wing media outlets quickly distributed her mugshot and charge sheet, weaponized to destroy her credibility and intimidate others from speaking out.

The swiftness with which the media picked up the story—without even verifying the charge’s validity—further supports the growing suspicion that this was a coordinated attack on a Jewish journalist for daring to challenge the glorification of Hamas and its genocidal ideology.

A Dangerous Precedent: How Hamas Sympathizers Exploit U.S. Institutions

Rachmuth argues that this arrest highlights a disturbing trend in America: where Jewish individuals who expose the glorification of Islamic terrorism and Hamas’s genocidal ideology are punished. At the same time, those who promote these dangerous movements face no repercussions. She asserts that the legal system has been weaponized to silence and intimidate those who speak out against radicalism, making it increasingly risky for Jewish Americans to call attention to antisemitism and extremism.

According to Rachmuth, her arrest raises serious concerns about how political and ideological biases impact law enforcement actions, particularly when it comes to Jewish Americans who challenge the normalization of anti-Jewish hostility.

Rachmuth also points to what she describes as a two-tiered justice system at play. Between 2022 and 2023, she lodged multiple detailed complaints with the Holly Springs Police Department regarding relentless harassment, cyberstalking, and threats she received for being Jewish and having an Israeli husband. Internal documents shared with RAIR show her detailed police reports of the doxxing of her family, anti-Jewish slurs, and ongoing harassment from known perpetrators were ignored by the police chief. Emails show the police declined to take action, stating that ‘no criminal North Carolina General Statutes have been violated.’

In a letter to Rachmuth dated January 9, 2023, the police admitted that they had thoroughly analyzed the documentation, consulted with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NC-SBI), and ultimately concluded that the harassment fell under ‘First Amendment protected speech’—even though it included threats, public exposure of personal records, and clear targeting of her family. In an email, the police chief justified inaction by citing the need to follow a chain of command before presenting charges for judicial review.

Yet, regarding her arrest, no such legal scrutiny or procedural delay was observed, as evidenced by the charges being dropped within 24 hours. She was promptly taken into custody without the due diligence police had claimed was necessary in previous cases. The statute requires ‘repeated’ communication directly to a person, a requirement absent from the arrest warrant. Furthermore, North Carolina courts have overturned similar cases on constitutional grounds.

Questions remain over who ordered her arrest. The DA was not involved in the initial decision—as later suggested when Freeman personally called her to confirm there was no case. Was this the work of a police department eager to silence her? She argues that the lack of due process in her case, compared to the meticulous legal caution used when she was the victim, speaks volumes about the selective enforcement of the law.

Rachmuth insists that those responsible for what she describes as her wrongful arrest, including Holly Springs Police Chief Paul Liquorie and the officers involved, must be held accountable. She warns that the decision to arrest her, despite the lack of legal grounds, sets a dangerous precedent for civil liberties, Jewish advocacy, and the ability to challenge radical ideologies without fear of state-backed retaliation.

Unanswered Questions: Who Will Be Held Responsible?

• Is Amira M. Fattah still employed at Harris Teeter?
• Is Sheronna Irick still working as the store manager?
• Did Harris Teeter issue a policy clarification prohibiting political symbols in the workplace?
• Why hasn’t Rachmuth received an apology from Harris Teeter or Holly Springs PD?
• Who within Harris Teeter’s corporate leadership initiated the false police report?

State-Enforced Antisemitism in America?

Rachmuth argues that her arrest is a direct attack on Jewish Americans who speak out against antisemitism and radicalism. She believes that her treatment at the hands of Harris Teeter and the Holly Springs Police Department reflects a growing danger faced by Jews in the United States—where supporters of terrorism are given a platform. At the same time, those who oppose terrorism are silenced and criminalized.

For Rachmuth, this case is more than just corporate censorship or police overreach—it is a glaring example of how extremists manipulate the United States legal system to punish those who object to terrorism. Lawfare is a tool of intimidation and activist police departments are complicit, using their power to suppress dissent and terrorize law-abiding citizens, she says.

Rachmuth warns that this weaponization of law enforcement against a Jewish journalist sets a dangerous precedent for the future of free speech, religious liberty, and civil rights. She argues that if an American can be arrested simply for objecting online to pro-terrorist symbolism in a grocery store, then no one is safe from politically motivated prosecution.

RAIR Foundation will continue to monitor this case closely and demand full accountability from Harris Teeter, the Holly Springs Police Department, and all individuals responsible for what it describes as a blatant abuse of power.

This article has been cross-posted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.