Somalia’s Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab has released a recruitment video that features a clip of Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The 51-minute video takes the form of a documentary about racial injustice in the United States and insists the country is turning on Muslims. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the [bleep] is going on,” Trump can be seen saying in the clip. The video bleeps out the word “hell.”
Right before Trump shows up in the video, late militant leader Anwar al-Awlaki is seen calling on Muslims to “learn from the lessons of history.” Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in 2011, lectures about race relations in the United States and why religious persecution shouldn’t surprise anyone. “There are ominous clouds gathering in your horizon,” al-Awlaki says in the video. “Yesterday, America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching and Ku Klux Klan. And tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps.” The video also shows footage of recent police shootings and says Muslims will suffer the same type of discrimination. American Muslims have two choices, al-Awlaki says in the video, “You either leave or you fight.”
The video appears to be the first time Trump has been used in a jihadist recruitment video. It comes less than a month after Hillary Clinton said Trump had become “ISIS’ best recruiter” due to his inflammatory rhetoric. Trump called Clinton a “liar” for her claims, and later insisted that he wouldn’t change his rhetoric even if he were presented with proof that terrorists were using him in recruitment videos.
