Donald Trump has been accused of stoking Islamophobia after a supporter was arrested for threatening to kill one of the first Muslim women to be elected to the US Congress.
Patrick Carlineo, from Addison, New York, was arrested on Friday and charged with making a threatening phone call to Ilhan Omars office.
Ms Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, represents the states fifth congressional district.
According to the FBI, Carlineo told a staff member: Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, shes a f****** terrorist.
Ill put a bullet in her f****** skull.
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez later also linked Fox News to the threat by Carlineo.
She drew a direct link with controversial remarks made by presenter Jeanine Pirro, who last month attacked Omars wearing of the hijab, asking if it was as a result of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States constitution.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet on Saturday: Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox [and] rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this.
She also appealed to people to talk policy, not personal.
Just hours after Carlineos arrest, Trump then mocked Omar in front of an audience of Jewish Republicans.
Sarcastically pretending to thank Omar for her support of Israel, he said: Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel, I forgot, Im sorry. No, she doesnt like Israel, does she?
After last months shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people, Omar accused Trump of whipping up the hatred that was behind such violence.
She said Trump was a president who publicly says Islam hates us, who fuels hate against Muslims, who thinks it is OK to speak about a faith and a whole community in a way that is dehumanizing, vilifying.
Muslim groups in America have warned that the heated rhetoric around Islam in general and Omar in particular, is creating a dangerous climate.
Afaf Nasher, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, saiRead More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
METRO
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
