Hillary Clinton has claimed that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is showing videos of Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims in an effort to “recruit more radical jihadists.”
During the Democratic presidential debate on Saturday evening, Clinton said, “We need to make sure that the really discriminatory messages that Trump is sending around the world don’t fall on receptive ears.”
{mosads}”He is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” the party front-runner added.
It is unclear whether the former secretary of State was speaking metaphorically or had evidence to back up the specific charge that footage of Trump was being used by ISIS.
Clinton aides responded to a request to clarify those remarks by pointing to an NBC news report that noted that Trump’s call to block Muslim immigration is “being used by the head-chopping fanatics and other terrorist group’s like al Qaeda to attract recruits by painting the land of the free as opposed to Islam.”
“They love him from the sense that he is supporting their rhetoric,’ said Rita Katz, an expert from the SITE Intelligence Group, in the NBC News story. SITE monitors Islamic terror support on social media.
“When he says, ‘No Muslims should be allowed in America,’ they tell people, ‘We told you America hates Muslims and here is proof.'”
In the debate, Clinton added that it is not in “America’s interest to react with this kind of fear.”
Democrats have repeatedly bashed Trump, the GOP front-runner, for floating the prospect of closing or surveilling mosques, mandating that Muslims sign up to a database to be tracked, or to restrict Muslim immigration in the wake of terrorist attacks.