Muslim community remains concerned over Trump presidency

Rasa - Some members of the Muslim community in Maryland are uncertain what President-elect Donald Trump's win means for them.

News ID: 425128

Date: 17 November 2016 - 23:24

RNA - Some members of the Muslim community in Maryland are uncertain what President-elect Donald Trump's win means for them.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ national executive director said the organization will hold Trump accountable for defending their constitutional rights.

Still, some Muslims are concerned about what the president-elect’s America will look like.

"Some Muslims don't know where we stand anymore in terms of our identity as Americans,” CAIR’s Maryland outreach director Zainab Chaudry said.

“We have young children who are asking are we going to be banned from the United States. Are we no longer American who don't know what the future holds?”

Last December on the campaign trail Trump called for a shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

In May, Trump said it was just a suggestion and dialed it back again in July during the Republican National Convention.

"We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place,” Trump said.

Despite the softening of Trump’s message, some Muslims say his words have made their lives more difficult.

"We've been inundated with reports of hate crimes, bias attacks, incidents of profiling, discrimination targeting Muslims and other minority groups and it’s really elevated the level of alarm amongst our community members,” Chaudry said.

While protesters have marched through the streets in several cities, including Baltimore, declaring that Trump is not their president, Chaudry said her organizations in not challenging the results of the election.

Chaudry is coming to terms with Trump’s win and is hoping the president-elect will reassure her that she's part of his America.

"The silence speaks volumes, so it's so important to hear him speak out and condemn the racism and the bigotry that we're seeing,” Chaudry said.

Trump addressed reports of harassment of Muslims and Latinos and said people need to stop it and that he wants to bring the country together.

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