WASHINGTON – Muslim women activists challenging Donald Trump’s Islamophobic remarks kicked off #CanYouHearUsNow social media campaign on Monday, August 1, to send a powerful message on who they are and how they speak out.
“DEAR MUSLIM WOMEN: Donald Trump thinks us Muslim women aren’t allowed to talk,” Fatima Salman, a Muslim activist who works at University of Michigan School of Social Work-Detroit Center, wrote on her Facebook page early on Monday, August 1.
“He obviously hasn’t met my entire group of Muslim women sheroes [super heroes]. Get ready for this social media campaign starting tomorrow 10am EST.”
Salman quoted another Muslim activist from Washington, Rabiah Ahmed, who wrote: “Okay ladies, let’s get in formation. Donald Trump said the reason Ghazala Khan didn’t speak at the DNC is because she wasn’t allowed to. Let’s show him that we don’t need any ones permission to speak!”
The father of an American Muslim captain, who was killed in 2004, blasted Donald Trump Saturday for suggesting his wife was “not allowed” to speak during a powerful speech at this week’s Democratic National Convention.
In an interview to be broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump implied that Khan’s wife, Ghazala Khan, “wasn’t allowed to have anything to say” when she stood next to her husband at the convention.
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me, but plenty of people have written that she was extremely quiet, and it looked like she had nothing to say,” Trump said.
Responding to Trump, the grieving mother told told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Friday that she was anxious during her husband’s speech, knowing her son’s photo would appear behind her.
“Sacrifice — I don’t think he knows the meaning of the sacrifice, meaning of the word,” Ghazala Khan told ABC News on Saturday.
“Because when I was standing there all America felt my pain, without saying a single word. Everybody felt that pain, but I don’t know how he missed that.”
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Responding to Trump’s false assumption, the social media campaign is due to run for three hours today.
“Join other Muslim women who are being asked to tweet/post between 10 a.m. and 1 pm (EDT) tomorrow, Monday, August 1, using the hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow, sharing a bit about who you are and how you speak out,” Salman added.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has joined the campaign, asking Muslim women activists to “tweet about who they are and how they speak out,” according to a press release.
CAIR also called on Trump to apologize for his remarks “disparaging Ghazala Khan” and his “repeated use and promotion of anti-Muslim stereotypes.”