The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in an interview Sunday that there’s a “sense of anxiety” following GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.
{mosads}“As you can tell, the Muslim community is extremely concerned about the violent backlash against its members, against its institutions,” Nihad Awad said on ABC’s “This Week.” “A mosque that was firebombed last Friday, quite a few violent attacks have been taking place against the individual Muslims. Hate messages, death threats — like, our two offices were evacuated, the one in Washington, D.C., and in Santa Clara, because of suspicious powder that we received with a death threat on it.
“This comes … in the background of the anti-Muslim sentiment that has been, unfortunately, fueled by Donald Trump and his likes from his platform.”
Awad said comments like Trump’s feed into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) plans.
“ISIS wants us to be afraid. ISIS wants to divide us. ISIS wants us to be afraid of one another,” he said.
“And unfortunately the bigger picture is the fact that we have 355 mass shootings in 2015 alone, and we see disproportionate media and political attention given to the acts of few thugs related to ISIS in the United States but not the 350 mass shootings, which means more than one mass shooting per day happened in the United States. Many happened at the hands of people who are not of the Islamic faith, but unfortunately we are giving a lot of credit to ISIS and to their recruited individuals, who are very few in the United States.”
Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) said on the same show that politicians like Trump are rewarded for provocative comments in the current political environment.
“You’ve seen cross tabs. You’ve seen poll numbers. When these politicians make these inflammatory remarks, they’re rewarded by higher polling results,” the Muslim lawmaker said.
“The facts are clear. Muslims have been a part of this country since the inception of this country. They’re in our law enforcement community,” he added. “They’re judges. My father-in-law was the first Muslim judge. They’re engineers. Go to any major hospital and you’ll find a Muslim physician.
“The facts are clear, George. There are over eight million Muslims in this country who are making contributions to our society. And anyone who wants to be the commander in chief has to know that and accept this reality.”