Advancing Justice Calls for Anti-Muslim Videos Removed from Trump Twitter Account
San Francisco, CA — November 29, 2017 — Today President Donald Trump retweeted unverified anti-Muslim videos from British white supremacist group, Britain First. The group has been denounced by the British government as a hate organization.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five Asian American civil rights organizations, released the following statement:
“Coming on the heels of recent FBI data showing record levels of hate crimes nationally, the President’s anti-Muslim tweets are unpresidential and nothing more than a dog whistle to white supremacists. Trump’s promotion of unverified Islamophobic videos from a far-right, conspiracy theorist group in Britain dangerously signals to those who hold hate in their hearts that their hatred is being sanctioned by the highest office in the United States.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is extremely concerned that this type of inflammatory action by the president could incite new attacks on Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian individuals and at places of worship in the coming weeks. At a time where we need to come together as a country, it seems some are only trying to grow the divide.
As hate crimes have escalated in the past year, Asian Americans Advancing Justice has worked hard to show support for victims of hate crimes, creating resources to monitor hate attacks, including its online reporting website and national toll-free hotline. Both include English as well as Asian language options. We strongly encourage Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to report hate crimes and hate incidents to ensure our community’s stories are documented. We hope to not see an uptick due to Trump’s actions today.
We call upon President Trump to remove these hateful videos and stop these attacks on our communities.”
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Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice | AAJC (Washington, DC), Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco), Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, and Advancing Justice – Chicago.