Dem lawmakers rally Muslims against Trump

PHILADELPHIA — Democratic lawmakers cast Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a bigot and a demagogue who is a threat to the nation at a gathering of Muslim delegates in Philadelphia on Thursday, the last day of the Democratic National Convention.

“Our first mission is to make sure that no one who calls women dogs, no one who concludes that only a certain ethnicity can judge him, no one who would bar 2 billion American Muslims from this country — we cannot allow that person to be president of the United States of America,” said Rep. Al Green (D-Texas).

{mosads}Civil rights icon and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was on hand at the luncheon for Muslim delegates hosted by the American Muslim Democratic Caucus.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, likened Trump’s racially charged rhetoric to the discrimination Jackson faced as a civil rights activist in the 1960s.

“Jesse Jackson faced down water hoses. Jesse Jackson faced down dogs barking. Jesse Jackson faced down the real bullies, the real racists, the people who absolutely would and did kill you if they could simply because you were fighting for human rights,” Ellison said. 

“And yet, even our beloved Jesse Jackson has never seen a major-party candidate openly appeal to religious hate, to ethnic bigotry, to making horrible, ugly, demeaning statements about women, to ridiculing people who are disabled, to saying a judge born in Indiana cannot preside because he’s of Mexican ancestry, saying no Muslim can come into the country, saying that Muslims should have to carry around a special ID.” 

Ellison said Trump’s positions are also held by the other GOP presidential candidates. 

He pointed to Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) national security adviser Frank Gaffney, who is stridently anti-Muslim. He noted that Ben Carson had said a Muslim should not be president and alleged that Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) “said the same thing.”

“We can argue over taxes and spending, but we cannot argue over who is included in the human family of the U.S.,” Ellison said. “We have every reason to stand up and fight for this election.”

Ellison urged the Muslims at the gathering to register voters at mosques and to run for office.

Trump has infuriated Democrats with his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country over fears of an attack from radical Islamic terrorists.

“What a contrast our convention is compared to what happened in Cleveland last week,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), referring to last week’s Republican National Convention.

“It is so important that we all unite in this election, not only for [Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton], who I think will lead this country and this world for all the things we care about, but more importantly to defeat a demagogue and a bigot who has demonized a glorious religion and a wonderful community.”