Minnesota Muslims Face Midterm Hostility

Amna Nawaz:

In the run-up to tomorrow’s midterm elections, experts have documented a surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric and xenophobia in political ads and speeches.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro brings us a report on some of the targets of that language and the impact it’s having. It’s part of our series Race Matters.

Imam Abdulahi Farah, Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center:

People are choosing tribalism over humanity. Immigrants are blamed. Muslims are blamed. Black and brown communities are blamed.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

During a recent prayer service at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center outside Minneapolis, Imam Abdulahi Farah had a pointed message, both for politicians and his own community.

Imam Abdulahi Farah:

Whether it’s oppression, whether it’s hate, whether it’s injustice, whether it’s done by someone you know or someone from outside, you have to take action.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Minnesota’s Somali population has been in the national spotlight since last year amid a series of massive fraud scandals.

Man:

Evacuated because of a shooting.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

But the community is now again under intense scrutiny over a rash of gun violence that authorities blamed on gangs of young Somali men. Minnesota Republicans seized on the events.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN):

These criminal gangsters, which I would argue are enemy combatants more than anything, they’re not holding them accountable.

Lisa Demuth (R), Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate: This is not who we are. We need safe communities, not Somali gang shoot-outs like the one that happened here.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

So did President Trump, who said Minnesota is being — quote — “taken over by Somali immigrants” and the state needed to fight back.

The president has also singled out Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

President Donald Trump:

I think she’s a sick, a very dishonest person, but — who hates our country. And she comes from a country that is essentially not even a country, Somalia. It’s real shithouse, OK?

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Federal investigators raided Omar’s home last month as part of an investigation into whether she or family members committed immigration fraud. Omar has denied any wrongdoing.

President Donald Trump:

We can’t let radical left jihadists…

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

But this election cycle, the president and his allies have widened their attacks on Muslim candidates.

Narrator:

Abdul raises money from dangerous people who finance terrorist networks. And his family has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

In particular, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, linking him without evidence to extremist groups.

President Donald Trump:

We don’t want to have a jihadist. We’re going to have to get a special medal detector for Abdul.

Vice President J.D. Vance:

We have to understand what happens when our nation gives in to these kinds of people, to young men with zero attachment to its land or to its history.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

The rhetoric, though, has gone well beyond El-Sayed himself. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a campaign event for El-Sayed’s opponent, former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:

There’s 500 million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science. They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They don’t win the Field Prize. They don’t win the Wolf Prize. They don’t produce literature.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

In fact, Arabs have won all of those awards.

Anti-Muslim sentiment was also widespread at the Republican Midterm Convention in September.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX):

Islamism, likewise, produces murder and oppression. Sharia law has no place in America.

(CHEERING)

Sara Tabor, Republican Voter:

Islam doesn’t have the same principles and values that we do as Christians.

Lisa Holomshek, Republican Voter:

All the mosques that are being built, it’s out of control.

Saher Selod:

The rhetoric certainly is something that I haven’t seen since 9/11.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Saher Selod is the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a think tank focused on America’s Muslim community.

Selod has tracked Islamophobia in U.S. politics.

Saher Selod:

I have never seen the level of anti-Muslim political ads that we’re seeing during this campaign cycle. The fact that it was already somehow acceptable to run on this type of racism and animus means that it’s trending to a certain extent within the general population. If it was so unpopular, then they wouldn’t — they wouldn’t feel like that this would be a successful strategy.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Back in Minnesota, officials are trying to navigate the political realities of the moment while searching for real solutions.

Booker Hodges, Bloomington, Minnesota, Police Chief:

A lot of this outside rhetoric, unfortunately, is political, and it’s not helping.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Booker Hodges is police chief in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.

(GUNFIRE)

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Last month, suspects fired over 100 rounds on a residential street in the city, a shooting Hodges linked to Somali gangs.

Booker Hodges:

I know that it’s not the entire community that’s doing this, but we do ourselves a disservice if we don’t call it what it is. We get caught up in the name and as opposed to dealing with the issue. And I think now we got to deal with the issue, and right now it’s just Somali-American gangs that we’re dealing with.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

But at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque, which is in Bloomington and was the site of a bombing by an anti-government militia group in 2017, some community members said they felt targeted, especially by the president’s comments.

Mural Tifow, Somali Minnesotan:

I do respect the president. He is my president, and I would love for the president to respect me as well as a voter, as a citizen. But that is not coming from this White House, and I feel threatened.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Are you afraid for your security?

Amina Adan, Somali Minnesotan:

Yes, for sure. I am afraid. I’m a mother of four daughters. Being a woman and outwardly being Muslim, I’m wearing my hijab and I’m already portraying my faith in my community. So, yes, I am very much afraid.

Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Fear that could linger across Minnesota, even as the heated election messaging comes to a close.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Fred de Sam Lazaro in the Twin Cities.

Amna Nawaz:

And Fred’s reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at Santa Clara University.