In Jihadist Video, Islamists Tout Trump Remark As ‘Recruitment Tool’ To Pit U.S. Pundits Against Each Other
In a jihadist video released by the Somali-based al-Shabaab on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2016, is a clip of G.O.P. presidential frontrunner Donald Trump calling for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Trump’s reaction to the massacre of 14 people and the wounding of 21 others in San Bernardino, California, by a Muslim couple on December 2, 2015, has sparked debate among pundits fearful of Islamist backlash. His much-quoted statement has resurfaced as part of a Somali propaganda to woo Islamic recruits.
The Washington Post, in a report, details the jihadist propaganda, calling on African-Americans to join a holy war against the United States. The clip with Trump appears 10 minutes into the 51-minute recording. The video source, al-Shabaab, was responsible for the 2013 attack on Kenya’s Westgate mall, killing over 65 people and wounding others.
Inserted in front and after the Trump clip is a declaration by the late al-Qaeda recruiter and jihadist, Anwar al-Awlaki, on a video appeal to Muslims in the United States to move to Islamic countries or wage war against the West at home.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, in a back-and-forth with Trump, accused him of being “I.S.I.S.’s best recruiter.” She mentioned the radical jihadist ploy of showing the Trump video piece around, “insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”
To Face the Nation host John Dickerson in Florida, Donald Trump indicated he was not the only public figure featured in a jihadist recruitment video. He issued the following statement on the CBS show aired Sunday, January 3.
“They use other people, too. What am I going to do? I have to say what I have to say. And you [know] what I have to say? There’s a problem. We have to find out what is a problem. And we have to solve that problem.”
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.) has attacked Trump for inciting “Islamophobia” in the United States with his inflammatory remark quoted by the jihadist video. “Islamophobia” is a word espoused by the organization for anything it perceives as anti-Muslim. Riding on the liberal sentiment that Trump is playing into the hands of Islamic State with his rhetoric, a representative of C.A.I.R. made the following statement.
“This is exactly what I.S.I.S. wants, to turn Americans against one another. We stand today united as Americans against stigmatization, against Islamophobia, against I.S.I.S.”
The persuasive language used by C.A.I.R. is in keeping with its strict adherence to taqqiya, a form of double-speak or sanctioned lying permitted by the Quran and used by the jihadist video. Listed as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates, the advocacy group has successfully maintained its legal position in the U.S.
Islamic reformer Tawfik Hamid named C.A.I.R. in a Wall Street Journal article, “perhaps the most conspicuous organization to persistently accuse opponents of Islamophobia.” Nuclear cardiologist Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (A.I.F.D.), cites C.A.I.R.’s agenda as focused on “victimology.” For this reason, Dr. Jasser called out President Barack Obama for telling the world that “I.S.I.S. is not Islamic.” Jasser describes what I.S.I.S. has done as traditional Muslim behavior, and accuses Obama of deflecting Jasser’s efforts to reform Islam from within.
The New Year’s Day post by the al-Kataib Media Foundation, used al-Awlaki in the capacity of post-mortem jihadist video spokesman. Al-Awlaki, who was a U.S. citizen killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen, predicted the West turning against its Muslim citizens.
The Business Standard reports the narrator in a jihadist tone on the Somali video, declaring that basic human rights and the U.S. concepts of justice, tolerance, and the rule of law “do not apply if you are a Muslim.”
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
