Militants use Trump clip in video
Somalia group aims to show institutionalized racism in the U. S. with candidate’s quotes.
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Al Qaeda’s East African affiliate has released a recruitment video targeting American blacks and Muslims that includes a clip of presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States.
The 51- minute video by the Somalia- based Shabab militant group presents the U. S. as a country of institutionalized racism against blacks that also persecutes Muslims. The video presents radical Islam as the solution.
The clip of Trump on the campaign trail consists of his infamous proposal for the “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” to protect the country.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had earlier claimed that Islamic State, another extremist organization, was using such quotes to recruit followers, prompting Trump to call her a “liar.”
The quotes from Trump are bracketed by a recorded speech from the late Yemeni American cleric Anwar Awlaki, warning that the U. S. would turn against its Muslims. Awlaki, once one of the most prominent Englishlanguage recruiters for Al Qaeda, was killed by a U. S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
The video was released Friday on Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, and tells the story of several Americans from Minnesota that joined the Shabab and were killed in the f ighting in Somalia, holding them up as examples.
Using footage from recent racial conf licts in the U. S. as well as historic quotes from Malcolm X, the video lays out the argument that blacks and Muslims will always face discrimination in the U. S. and should join militant movements to fight back.
The Shabab is f ighting the internationally backed Somali government. The militant group was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 with the help of African Union troops.
The militants have still carried out numerous guerrilla attacks in Somalia and the countries contributing troops, including Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda.
Trump, who is leading in polls to be the Republican candidate in this year’s presidential election, has been rebuked by rivals on both sides for his proposed ban on Muslims in early December.
Clinton’s campaign declined to comment on the video.