By Nida Khan
Early Wednesday morning, the world was treated to yet
another flurry of tweetstorm from President Donald Trump. It was the
typical seemingly random but not-so-random attacks against "fake news,"
hypocritical calling out of Matt Lauer, praise for the economy – and oh –
retweeting anti-Muslim propaganda videos from the deputy leader of a
hate group in England. Sadly, none of this is surprising. It's the same
playbook we saw on the campaign trail: Incite anti-Muslim fervor, fears
of terrorism and the 'other,' and drum up support from his base. While
Trump in his role as president thoroughly degrades the office he holds,
none of us should be shocked; as the saying goes, he showed us who he
was a long time ago. What should make everyone pause, however, is why
this sort of anti-Muslim nonsense continues to resonate with so many and
why it appears to work time and again.
In 2010, I penned a piece titled "Islamophobia – Weapon
of Choice for the Midterms." It's hard to believe, but it was seven
years ago when Islamophobes like Pam Geller and others descended upon
New York City to protest the proposed construction of what was in
essence the Muslim version of a YMCA, which they manipulatively dubbed
the "Ground Zero mosque." The right-wing saw an opportunity and ran with
it straight into the midterm elections. Their "Ground Zero mosque"
nonsense was pushed for months on conservative talk radio, networks like
Fox News and others in their echo chamber. Then a few weeks prior to
the anniversary of 9/11 in 2010, Geller and others convened a massive
protest against the "Ground Zero mosque" in downtown New York. I covered
that rally.
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Source: U.S. News & World Report
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