Wednesday, November 29, 2017 5:54:58 PM
Trump’s retweets elevate a tiny fringe group of anti-Muslim activists in Britain
"The Making of an American Nazi"
Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First, marches in London on April 1. On Wednesday, President Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by Fransen. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)
By William Booth and Karla Adam November 29 at 5:22 PM
LONDON — In sharp personal rebuke, the British government told President Trump he was “wrong” to retweet on Wednesday a series of anti-Muslim video clips promoted by the leader of an ultranationalsist fringe group in the U.K. that the prime minister’s office said “peddles lies” and “hateful narratives.”
Trump had alerted his millions of followers to three video posts by Britain First, a small group of far-right nationalists, whose supporters march in front of mosques with crosses and whose leaders decry what they describe as a takeover of British Christian society by “foreign infidels” who want to enforce Sharia law.
The three videos promoted by Trump provide no context beyond the titles provided by Britian First. In one, the group says a “Muslim migrant” attacks a Dutch boy. The Netherlands Embassy tweeted at Trump: “Facts do matter. 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.” The embassy does not reveal his religion but confirms he is not a migrant.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s post as evidence he wants to “promote strong borders and strong national security.”
“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real, and that is what the president is talking about,” Sanders told reporters.
[...]
Some said Trump was trying to legitimize the far right in Britain, while others were so flabbergasted that they wondered whether he was perhaps either naive or ignorant.
“Britain First is an appalling organization,” Martin Callanan, a Conservative Party politician and a government minister, told the BBC.
Referring to Trump, Callanan said: “I can only assume he has made a mistake and that he didn’t realize who Britain First were.”
[...]
Even Paul Joseph Watson of the far-right, conspiracy-minded Infowars tweeted that giving Britain First a megaphone is not a good look for Trump.
“Yeah, someone might want to tell whoever is running Trump’s Twitter account this morning that retweeting Britain First is not great optics,” Watson wrote.
Nick Ryan, a spokesman for Hope Not Hate, an anti-extremist research organization, said it was astonishing that the U.S. president would knowingly retweet the group’s posts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trumps-tweets-elevate-a-tiny-fringe-group-of-anti-muslim-activists-in-britain/2017/11/29/02489a42-d515-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_story.html?utm_term=.0dc36f76b5f1
Trump not only attacks traditional core American values and institutions but also those of other Western democratic countries.
Trump looks more like Putin's elephant in the room every day.
"The Making of an American Nazi"
Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First, marches in London on April 1. On Wednesday, President Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by Fransen. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)
By William Booth and Karla Adam November 29 at 5:22 PM
LONDON — In sharp personal rebuke, the British government told President Trump he was “wrong” to retweet on Wednesday a series of anti-Muslim video clips promoted by the leader of an ultranationalsist fringe group in the U.K. that the prime minister’s office said “peddles lies” and “hateful narratives.”
Trump had alerted his millions of followers to three video posts by Britain First, a small group of far-right nationalists, whose supporters march in front of mosques with crosses and whose leaders decry what they describe as a takeover of British Christian society by “foreign infidels” who want to enforce Sharia law.
The three videos promoted by Trump provide no context beyond the titles provided by Britian First. In one, the group says a “Muslim migrant” attacks a Dutch boy. The Netherlands Embassy tweeted at Trump: “Facts do matter. 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.” The embassy does not reveal his religion but confirms he is not a migrant.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s post as evidence he wants to “promote strong borders and strong national security.”
“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real, and that is what the president is talking about,” Sanders told reporters.
[...]
Some said Trump was trying to legitimize the far right in Britain, while others were so flabbergasted that they wondered whether he was perhaps either naive or ignorant.
“Britain First is an appalling organization,” Martin Callanan, a Conservative Party politician and a government minister, told the BBC.
Referring to Trump, Callanan said: “I can only assume he has made a mistake and that he didn’t realize who Britain First were.”
[...]
Even Paul Joseph Watson of the far-right, conspiracy-minded Infowars tweeted that giving Britain First a megaphone is not a good look for Trump.
“Yeah, someone might want to tell whoever is running Trump’s Twitter account this morning that retweeting Britain First is not great optics,” Watson wrote.
Nick Ryan, a spokesman for Hope Not Hate, an anti-extremist research organization, said it was astonishing that the U.S. president would knowingly retweet the group’s posts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trumps-tweets-elevate-a-tiny-fringe-group-of-anti-muslim-activists-in-britain/2017/11/29/02489a42-d515-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_story.html?utm_term=.0dc36f76b5f1
Trump not only attacks traditional core American values and institutions but also those of other Western democratic countries.
Trump looks more like Putin's elephant in the room every day.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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