This past Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump retweeted three videos of Islamophobic propaganda from the marginal extremist faction “Britain First.” Jayda Fransen, the leader of the group, tweeted in response to Trump’s endorsement over Twitter, saying, "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN'S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!"

 

Former leader of the Klu Klux Klan David Duke responded with similar, racially charged sentiments: “Trump retweets video of crippled white kid in Europe being beaten by migrants, and white people being thrown off a roof and then beaten to death, He's condemned for showing us what the fake news media WON'T. Thank God for Trump! That's why we love him!” Thousands have already retweeted and left comments on Trump’s latest PDR (Public Display of Racism), many in support of the anti-Muslim message he’s trying to spread.

 

Though apartheid propaganda is wrong in whatever way it’s taking place, the videos Trump retweeted ("Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary," "Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death," and "Muslim migrant beats up Dutch Boy on crutches!") were especially ridiculous -- they weren’t even accurate. The first two videos were both recorded in 2013 four years ago, and there’s a story behind each: the “Muslim” mentioned in “Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary" was actually Abo Omar Ghabra, Syrian cleric and member of the extremist groups Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, and “Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death” was part of a much larger political crisis in Egypt at the time, which consisted largely of internal division over their new president, Mohamed Morsi. As for the third video, there was some initial controversy over whether or not it really was a “Muslim migrant” beating up the crippled Dutch boy, as the clip showed no evidence as to the culprit’s ethnicity or religion...that is, until the Netherlands Embassy revealed the truth of the matter in a tweet: “The perpetrator of the violent act in this video was born and raised in the Netherlands. He received and completed his sentence under Dutch law” -- meaning that that video actually has nothing to do with Islam at all.

 

When confronted on the issue of the post’s verity, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters, "Whether it is a real video, the threat is real...the threat has to be talked about, and that’s what the president is doing in bringing that up. The President is focused on is dealing with those real threats, and those are real no matter how you look at it." Unfortunately for Ms. Sanders, repeating the phrase “real threats” doesn't change the fact that there is no “threat” posed by Muslims in society, and in all truthfulness, the sharing of these videos is just anti-Muslim advertising.

 

(Not so) Fun fact: did you know that Hitler promoted anti-Jewish propaganda in Germany? Some examples include the children’s books issued in schools “The Poisonous Mushroom” and “Trust No Fox” (in which the respective Mushroom and Fox are overt representations of how Jewish people are “detrimental” to society) and the film “The Eternal Jew,” a documentary that teaches the racial personalities that justified the Nazi party’s militant anti-Semitism.

 

Obviously, this isn’t the first time Trump has taken an anti-Muslim stand. Trump demonstrated clear xenophobia even before his election and travel bans, as shown by one of his tweets on December 15th, 2015: “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” He also responded to Hillary Clinton’s defense of Muslims after the gay nightclub shooting in Orlando of 2016 by saying, “She is in total denial...and her continuing reluctance to ever name the enemy broadcasts weakness across the world."

 

Trump’s use of the phrase “Radical Islamic Terrorism” in his presidential campaign, his moves towards a “Muslim ban,” and labeling Muslim profiling as “common sense” are only a few of the many racial offences he has committed. If he were a citizen under the European Union, which mandates that individual states penalize not only crimes committed on the basis of the victim's actual or perceived ethnicity, nation, race, religion, or sexual orientation, but also cyber hate speech (of which President Trump is just one of many Americans who are guilty), he would certainly be faced with legal charges of hate crimes similar to those of Jayda Fransen after she verbally abused a hijab-wearing mother in Northern Ireland. Personally, I speculate that the U.S. was unable to enact such laws because we don’t have enough space in the prisons.