America’s largest Muslim advocacy group says Donald Trump is endangering Muslim-American women.
“By appearing to endorse the bigoted views of one of his supporters, Donald Trump is placing all American Muslim women who wear Islamic attire in danger,” Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement Friday.
“American Muslims, and particularly Muslim women, are facing an unprecedented spike in discrimination and hate attacks, due in no small part to Donald Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric and policy proposals.”
McCaw’s comments are in response to an incident Thursday, when a female Trump supporter at a rally pressed the presumptive GOP nominee to ban Muslims from working for the Transportation Security Administration.
“Homeland security and jobs — why aren’t we putting our military retirees on that border or in TSA?” she asked.
“Get rid of all these hibijabies they wear at TSA,” the woman added, motioning to her head and presumably describing a hijab. “I’ve seen them myself.
“We need the veterans back in there — they fought for this country and defended it. They’ll still do it.”
Trump did not question his audience member’s choice of words when he responded.
“I understand that,” Trump said. “You know, we are looking at that. We are looking at a lot of things.”
Trump also declined to push back at a supporter seeking to “get rid of” Muslims last September.
“We have a problem in this country: It’s called Muslims,” a man said during a question-and-answer session in Rochester, N.H. “You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”
“Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us,” he continued. “That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”
“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied.
“You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.”