New York - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said this weekend that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans in New Jersey “cheering as the World Trade Center came down” on September 11, 2001.
New York – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said this weekend that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans in New Jersey “cheering as the World Trade Center came down” on September 11, 2001.
Speaking at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday, Trump slandered Arab Americans, saying: “Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down….I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering. So something’s going on. We’ve got to find out what it is”.
Following the controversial declarations that stirred outrage among Arab Americans, the real estate mogul was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week show.
Although New Jersey police has denied Trump’s accusations as stated by Stephanopoulos, the billionaire insisted in saying that it did happen and “he saw it”.
“It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it. (…) There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good,” The Donald stressed.
Republican George Pataki, Former NY Governor who served the state during the 9/11 attacks mocked Donald’s comment and reassured people it was not true.
“Not sure what luxury spider-hole @realDonaldTrump was hiding in on Sept11 but I saw Americans come together that day @GStephanopoulos,” Governor Pataki posted on Twitter.
Democrat Steven Fulop, Jersey City Mayor, called Trump’s accusations “absurd” and lashed out at him on Twitter.
“Either @realDonaldTrump has memory issues or willfully distorts the truth, either of which should be concerning for the Republican Party,” Mayor Fulop said.
Ibrahim Hooper, director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations told BuzzFeed News that Trump is “either mistaken or he’s lying”.
The controversial Republican candidate is against allowing entrance of Syrian refugees into the U.S. He has even called for the establishment of a database of all Muslim Americans in the country and wants to close mosques.
“When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if it’s a Trojan horse and I definitely want a database and other checks and balances,” he said during an ABC interview.
By slandering New Jersey Arabs, Trump mistakenly thinks that all Arabs are Muslims. He seems to ignore that millions of Arabs are not Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs.
