ISLAMOPHOBIA
“DONALD TRUMP IS DANGEROUS”
BY Nicolas Berube 5 Mar 2016
(English Google translation from original French)
Expelled booed at a political rally Donald Trump, Rose Hamid, a Muslim mother, has been the target of Islamophobic attacks on the Net. “He knows that his statements ignite the crowd. What scares me is that he chooses to continue, “she confided to La Presse.
NICOLAS BÉRUBÉ LA PRESSE
In January, you have decided to get up in silence at a political rally Donald Trump in Rock Hill, South Carolina. How did it go ?
Before the speech, a supporter of Donald Trump came on stage to tell people to stand up and chant “Trump! Trump! Trump! “If protesters tried to disrupt the event history to alert security personnel.
During the speech, I got up when Donald Trump began to insinuate that people fleeing war in Syria were terrorists. I was with Marty Rosenbluth, which campaigns for the rights of immigrants, and we stood in silence with our yellow badge “Muslim.” People around us were polite, but when security escorted us, the people we met were inflamed, they shouted: “Trump! Trump! “Their eyes were bulging. It looked like they were in a trance, they no longer reflected, and that’s when I got scared.
It is the personality of Donald Trump that produces this effect. This is not necessarily the words he utters. This is the way it has to communicate with the crowd of reacting to fire people … It ignites the crowd. It’s the only way I have to describe the phenomenon.
Donald Trump he sometimes tries to calm things down?
No, and that’s what scares me. One might think that an individual who wants to be elected leader of this country recognize the impact of his words, that Donald Trump would say to his followers: “Wait a minute. This is not a good way to behave. “But it did the opposite. He knows that his statements ignite the crowd and he chose to continue. It is increasing. This is dangerous, and not just in political rallies, but throughout the country, because it sends the message that intolerance is accepted, encouraged.
You say you have been targeted by Islamophobic since this episode.
In the life of every day, we do anything to me. Harassment occurs online. People began to publish articles on blogs saying that I support terrorists. At first I laughed, but I saw that these wacky items have a doubt in the minds of people who wanted to support me.
Islamophobic on the Net are always the same: they take a Muslim and make connections between him and terrorism. For them, the main Muslim organizations in the US support terrorism.
The problem is that Muslims see it, they are afraid. They are afraid to be part of the mentioned organizations because they do not want to be labeled as supporting terrorism. Then they isolate themselves and no longer participate in public debate, and that is not good for the community.
It’s like the “red scare” with communism in the 50s the concept of guilt by association, banning people … When someone takes a microphone and arouses fear, hatred, it encourages the crowd to take revenge in any way whatsoever.
You work as a flight attendant. Have you been afraid that the controversy affect your work?
I wrote an open letter to the Huffington Post on my experience at the rally, and to my surprise, the airline I work for just talked about in the weekly newsletter, entitled “Stand for Diversity” . The president of the company wrote me a letter saying he “applauded my courage.” For me it was a moment ‘wow’. It gave me a sense of relief, knowing that my employer was open-minded, knowing that I could speak freely.