Spike Lee: Trump ‘like Hitler’ toward Muslims
Filmmaker Spike Lee sees parallels between GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“He wants to close down the mosques now,” Lee said Monday in an interview with The Daily Beast, referring to Trump.
{mosads}“That’s like the Nazis,” Lee continued. “That’s Hitler, [Italian fascist leader Benito] Mussolini, the Axis powers.
“You can’t do that,” he added.
Trump is pushing for closer scrutiny of America’s Islamic communities following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. About 130 people died and more than 300 others were wounded during coordinated violence across the French capital on Nov. 13.
Trump has responded by calling for stricter surveillance of the nation’s mosques following the attacks. He has also proposed a national registry of Syrian refugees.
Lee also rejected Trump’s disputed claims that some Muslim Americans in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“That was a bold-faced lie,” he said in The Daily Beast interview. “Muslims were getting their asses kicked in this country when that happened.
“Here’s the thing: the United States has perfected the science of ‘the boogeyman,’” Lee said. “Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Nazis, Soviets, Chinese and now it is Muslims. They’re the new boogeymen.”
Lee then challenged the assertion that radical Islam is the sole inspiration for terrorism.
“The Planned Parenthood shooter, that guy is a terrorist, too,” he said, referencing last week’s attack at one of the organization’s facilities in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“That’s not the first time some Planned Parenthood building has been shot up,” Lee continued. “That’s terrorism.
“If we want to talk about terrorists, you can’t have the myopic view that all terrorists are Muslims,” the “Malcolm X” director added.
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