We cannot ever forget…
The Islamophobia President
People are hurting.
Emotions are running high.
Sides are being taken.
Lines are being drawn.
Incredibly consequential choices are being guided by valid, legitimate, palpable feelings like — sadness, frustration, anger, fear, mourning, grief and rage.
This is fertile ground for continued conflict, increased division & pain.
Luckily, there exists both a preventative measure and a cure.
It’s called the truth.
So in the event that anyone needs reminding, in addition to the rest of his daily awfulness, the truth is that 91-times charged Donald Trump, and the bigoted, vitriolic rhetoric of his unquestionably Islamophobic administration, emboldened blatant discrimination and tangibly harmed the American Muslim community.
He questioned the birthplace of our first black President and still to this day, uses his name as a slur to demean him and to question his “loyalty” to this America.
He said “Islam hates us.”
He proposed surveilling mosques.
He wanted Muslims in the United States to register in a special database.
He put Islamophobes like Mike Flynn & Sebastian Gorka in the White House.
He called for a “complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
He used the highest office in our government not only to endorse discrimination and violence against Muslim Americans, but to essentially sanction it.
And it worked.
It is still working.
He hasn’t stopped stoking this fire.
It propelled him to the very office he would later attempt to steal.
This July he said to a rally crowd in Iowa: “When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before.”
He’s doubling down on anti-Muslim hate speech. And they aren’t just words. Unlike so many of his other unfulfilled promises, targeting, harassing and oppressing Muslim Americans is something he has proven he will seek to deliver.
This is a very difficult time for so many. And we often lose our capacity for rational thought when we are flooded with with intense emotion.
And in that space, we can lose sight of the things we know to be true.
The truth is that Donald Trump has already shown himself to be the Islamophobia President, and we already know that he will only go much, much further if ever given the chance.
We must not give him the chance.
“Luckily, there exists both a preventative measure and a cure.
It’s called the truth.”
Very wise and what we need to both remember and speak. Thank you for what you do so powerfully, Jo.
Thank you for staying on top of this issue. It’s going to take all of us to prevent a disastrous second term by a man who should never have had a first.