Three mosques in California received hateful letters last week saying that President-elect Donald Trump was going to “cleanse” the United States of Muslims by doing “what Hitler did to the Jews.”
The handwritten letters address “the children of Satan” and are signed “Americans for a Better Way.”
“You Muslims are a vile and filthy people. Your mothers are whores and your fathers are dogs,” the letter states. “You are evil. You worship the devil. But, your day of reckoning has arrived.”
“[Trump] is going to cleanse America and make it shine again,” the letter continues. “And, he’s going to start with you Muslims. He’s going to do to you what Hitler did to the Jews.”
The letter received by three mosques in California. (CAIR)
The letters were identical, according to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who believes that other mosques received the letters as well. He said Trump’s “irresponsible, hateful rhetoric” during his campaign has resulted in “a level of vulgarity, vile hatred and anger among many self-proclaimed Trump supporters,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
“I’m not saying [Trump] created racist people,” Ayloush said. “He normalized it. While he might say he’s not responsible, and I respect that, I remind President-elect Trump that he has a responsibility to act as a president for all Americans.”
The mosques received the hateful letters shortly after a new poll revealed that nearly half of people who voted for Trump 45 percent believe whites face a lot of discrimination. Only 40 percent believe that Muslim people face a lot of discrimination, according to the HuffPost/YouGov survey. And less than a quarter believe Blacks, Latinos and Jewish people face a lot of discrimination.
Related Story: Hate Incidents Seven Times More Common in Post-Election Week
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) collected 701 incidents of hate in the week directly following the election, from November 9 to November 16. On the same day the SPLC released its most updated report, the FBI released its annual hate crimes report, revealing that 5,818 single-bias incidents occurred in 2015. This averages to roughly 112 incidents per week meaning that the number of hate incidents has been nearly seven times greater during the week following the election than an average week.
The FBI specifically reported a 67 percent increase in hate crimes against Muslims. The spike in anti-Muslim incidents reached its highest point since the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to the data.
During his divisive campaign Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the country and suggested a national database that requires all Muslims to register. The Trump team recently denied that he ever made those remarks, but newly picked members of Trump’s staff have touted the idea once again.
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Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, said during an interview for “Meet the Press” that nothing was off the table, adding, “I’m not going to rule out anything.”
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who will serve as Trump’s national security advisor, tweeted earlier this year, “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”
Last week Trump condemned the white supremacists and hate groups that say they have been energized by his campaign. But those were just words to appease the media, according to those he condemned.
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“I obviously would have preferred he not condemn, but I’m not going to read too much into that. It is what it is just words,” wrote Andrew Anglin, founder of the popular neo-Nazi “Daily Stormer” website, in a post last Tuesday. “As long as he does what he says he’s going to do, he can condemn whatever he wants and I’ll still support him 100%.”
In a separate post earlier this year on “Daily Stormer,” which is named after the notorious Nazi publication “Der Strmer” and billed as “America’s #1 Most-Trusted Republican News Source,” Anglin wrote: “Jews, Blacks and lesbians will be leaving America if Trump gets elected and he’s happy about it. This alone is enough reason to put your entire heart and soul into supporting this man.”
Trump’s election can largely be attributed to white voters, according to exit polls. While he won 58 percent of white votes, he received 29 percent of both the Asian and Hispanic votes and just 8 percent of the Black votes.
