Thursday, November 30, 2017

Calculated Anti-Muslim Tweets

 
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. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: U.S. News & World Report

No comments: