St. LOUIS – Muslims rushed to twitter after Sunday’s debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to mock the Republican nominee’s blame to the entire Muslim community for failing to report terrorists and identify them.
“I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate,” Moustafa Bayoumi, author of This Muslim American Life, wrote on Twitter early on Monday, October 10.
During Sunday night’s US presidential debate, Trump called on Muslims to report “hatred” and “problems”, “when they see them”.
He was answering a question from an undecided Muslim voter from the audience who asked “how will you help people like me deal with the consequences of being labeled as a threat to the country after the election is over?”
“You’re right about Islamophobia and that’s a shame,” Trump started by saying.
But then he immediately went on to insinuate that millions of American Muslims are keeping secrets to protect terrorists within their communities.
“Muslims have to report the problems when they see them,” he said.
“And you know there’s always a reason for everything. If they don’t do that, it’s a very difficult situation for our country.”
The 3.3 million Muslims in America could be doing more to stop attacks, he said. “As an example, in San Bernardino many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed fourteen and wounded many many people,” he said.
Clinton’s staff immediately pointed out the hypocrisy of his first comment.
“‘You are right about Islamophobia, and it’s a shame.’ —Donald Trump, who proposed a ban on Muslims entering the US,” her campaign tweeted.
Sarcasm
As Trump advised Muslims to report when they ‘see something going on’, Muslims followed his advice, reporting him on twitter.
“Hi, I’m Muslim & want 2 report a man in St. Louis butchering English by stringing adjectives & passing them as sentences #MuslimsReportStuff,” one tweeted.
“A man was spotted stealing tons of hay from a local farm. He’s allegedly using it to produce fake hair. #MuslimsReportStuff,” another added.
Others used sarcasm to mock his suggestion.
“I think my sister drank orange juice straight out of the carton, will continue to investigate #MuslimsReportStuff,” one tweeted.
“I’d like to report multiple containers of some kind of bean dip mislabeled as #hummus at Safeway #muslimsreportstuff,” another added.
“You don’t want to know what we actually put in hummus. #MuslimsReportStuff,” Reza Aslam added.
“”Falafel” actually means “kill all the infidels”. We’ve kept that a secret all this time. #MuslimsReportStuff,” Hend Amry tweeted.
According to the Pew Research Center report in January 2016, Muslims represent just 1 to 2 percent of the country’s population.
However, the majority of the 3.3 million community lives in strategic places, or swing states, like Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
When the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based rights organization, launched its 2016 Muslims Vote campaign, the goal was to lead 1 million Muslim constituents to the voting booths.
A surge in Muslim electoral participation could have consequences beyond the presidential race, helping Democrats in down-ballot races and perhaps creating a more cohesive voting bloc in future presidential contests.