澳彩开奖

Donald Trump loves to portray himself as a man of the people, and so throwing the mic聽open to his supporters at a recent town-hall gathering in New Hampshire seemed like a natural gesture. The first questioner at the Sept. 17 Rochester Republican presidential primary event 鈥� a man who identified himself as someone 鈥渇rom White Plains鈥� 鈥� gave him the kind of blunt talk that Trump himself reveres.聽

鈥淲e have a problem in this country,鈥� the man said. 鈥淚t's called Muslims. You know our current president is one.鈥�

鈥淩ight,鈥� Trump answered, an unsurprising reply given that聽 believe the Obama is secretly a Muslim.

鈥淵ou know he's not even an American," the man continued.

Trump gestured to the audience: "We need this question. This is the first question."

"Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us," the man said. "That's my question: When can we get rid of them?"

"We're going to be looking at a lot of different things," Trump replied. "You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We're going to be looking at that and many other things." And then he moved on.

In the days that followed, Trump was questioned about his response to the man. Why hadn鈥檛 he corrected the man鈥檚 claim that Obama is Muslim? Or his claims about training camps?

Trump answered the first question 鈥� he didn鈥檛 to defend President Obama 鈥� but ignored the remaining issues about his performance. In particular, wanted to know why he seemed to condone the man鈥檚 rabid hatred of Muslims and his plans to 鈥渓ook at鈥� rounding them up.

Then another Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, added fuel to the fire. Asked on about Trump鈥檚 response, Carson told host Chuck Todd that he didn鈥檛 believe Islam is consistent with the U.S. Constitution: 鈥淚 would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,鈥� he said.

That, too, provoked , with Muslim civil-rights groups calling for Carson to "withdraw from the presidential race because he is unfit to lead, because his views are inconsistent with the United States Constitution." Indeed, of the Constitution specifically prohibits any religious test for persons to hold office.

Moreover, many Muslim Americans saw the candidates鈥� rhetoric as a sign that a fresh wave of the visceral, irrational ethnic loathing of all things Muslim听飞补蝉 . And while such sentiments have been part of the American landscape since at least Sept. 11, 2001, for reasons that are not altogether discernible, it has reached a fever pitch in the past several weeks 鈥� the culmination of a perfect storm of electoral politics, conspiracy theorizing聽and nativist fearmongering.

Those concerns are well grounded. One incident that caught national attention involved by police in Irving, Texas, after he brought an electronic clock of his own making to school to show his teacher, who mistook it for a bomb. It soon emerged that Irving鈥檚 mayor was for her role as a right-wing activist against the supposed threat (in reality, nonexistent) of 鈥淪haria law,鈥� and the mayor indeed her police force鈥檚 actions in arresting the teen.

Though the teen鈥檚 trauma was ameliorated somewhat by becoming a national celebrity toasted by President Obama and various tech companies for his bravery, the incident also clearly demonstrated the dangers of succumbing to ethnic fearmongering. Eventually, , claiming he had carefully planned the whole fiasco from the start and was secretly a tool of Islamist radicals.

Islamophobia has infected small-town America, too, in places ranging from to Twin Falls, Idaho 鈥� places where longtime operations that have carefully placed refugees from around the world in jobs and new lives in America are suddenly under siege from their own neighbors. These citizens, whipped up by anti-Muslim activists and right-wing media, are deeply fearful about Muslims 鈥� notably, those from Syria 鈥� destroying their communities.

The role played by local media in fueling these flames is especially noteworthy. In Twin Falls, local talk-radio hosts turned to topics and fears of refugees聽鈥渃hanging our culture鈥� and 鈥渂ringing a threat to the community鈥�. One caller was especially upset about the criticism of Ben Carson:

This makes me mad, and also scared to death. We鈥檝e got a Muslim, a Muzzie leader in this country, telling a presidential candidate that he should resign because of what he said? I mean 鈥� it is against the Constitution! They have Sharia law, we do not!

Other callers waded into the waters of bizarre conspiracy theories that had nothing to do with reality:

I don鈥檛 think a lot of people are aware of the fact that bringing all these foreigners in, especially that bunch that [Secretary of State John] Kerry is proposing to bring in, they鈥檙e going to come here, and they will eventually overpopulate. And we鈥檙e going to be conquered by the sheer numbers of those overpopulated people.

The hosts, of course, did nothing to discourage this kind of talk, but instead blandly folded it in with their own discussions.

This sort of conspiracist discourse reached its apotheosis on a national scale the day after Donald Trump鈥檚 town hall, when popular 鈥淚nfowars鈥� radio host Alex Jones hosted Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch, a onetime respected Beltway insider who in recent years has gone off the rails in claiming that President Obama is secretly a Muslim conspiring to destroy America. And indeed, that very theory was the primary subject of his interview with Jones.

The twist in was Klayman鈥檚 belief that some generals might take out the president in a coup to prevent him from turning America into a subject nation of the Caliphate, noting that most of the current chiefs of staff are 鈥測es men鈥� too cowardly to take such heroic action:

Maybe Obama is pushing them to the point that maybe someday will wage a coup in this country. I鈥檓 not advocating that but I know that some of these retired generals and admirals have talked about it. I know that, it鈥檚 been in the public domain, because Obama, and I鈥檒l say it straight up because no one else is, you will, Obama is a Muslim through-and-through. Obama sympathizes with a Muslim Caliphate, Obama sympathizes with the mullahs in Tehran, he sympathizes with the radicals in the Far East.

The bulk of the interview, however, was devoted to the depths of Obama鈥檚 supposed depravity, as limned by Klayman:

Yes, he wants to bring the United States down to its knees. He admired his father, his father was Muslim. His father was thrown out of this country because he overstayed his student visa, much like many Muslims are doing these days, and others. And Obama, in his heart, has disdain.聽 But he鈥檚 very smart, because he pulled a number over all of us. He defrauded us. I don鈥檛 believe he鈥檚 a natural-born citizen to be a president of the United States. He鈥檚 told everybody he鈥檚 a Christian, he鈥檚 not. And actions speak louder than words. And yes, I do believe in his heart, he would like to see the world run by Muslims.

Though Klayman has wandered far afield from his salad days in the 1990s when Judicial Watch was filing numerous lawsuits against the Clintons and he was a well-regarded conservative insider, he still rates for his work in the right-wing press praising his crusades. And last year, he even scored a legal victory by with his lawsuit against the National Security Administration鈥檚 data-collection program, though that .

The spread of Islamophobia into the conservative mainstream, as evidenced by the rhetoric of Republican candidates, extends well beyond Trump and Carson. 聽As , most of the GOP鈥檚 candidates have indulged in Muslim bashing of some kind or another in recent months:

• Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor turned TV show host, has called Muslims departing mosques and said that Islam is 鈥渁 religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet.鈥�

• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal from his groundless claim that certain areas of Europe are 鈥渘o go zones鈥� dominated by Muslims using Sharia law.

• Ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Jordan Sekulow, who has a long background of anti-Muslim activism, and is noted for calling supporters of the so-called Ground Zero mosque 鈥渢errorists.鈥�

• Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a man noted for his history of anti-Muslim activism, Kevin Kookogey.

• Rick Santorum has himself a long history of anti-Muslim comments, including in which he claimed that 鈥渢he West鈥� was in an existential fight with the forces of 鈥渞adical Islam,鈥� noting that 鈥測ou don鈥檛 have Baptist ministers going on jihad.鈥� Santorum has in security and law聽enforcement work.

But Trump in particular, due to his current front聽runner聽status in the race, has been a catalyst for some of the most overheated Muslim-bashing. This week, he demonstrated how the fires of bigotry can just keep escalating.

Though he had told only a few weeks before that, in his view, there ought to be even more room for refugees from the Syrian crisis, on Wednesday, he .

I鈥檓 putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria, as part of this mass migration, that if I win, they鈥檙e going back 鈥� they鈥檙e going back! I鈥檓 telling you 鈥� they鈥檙e going back!

This was met with wide applause from audience. And then Trump explained his rationale, which appeared to come straight out of an Alex Jones radio show:

Because military tactics, you know, are very interesting. This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time 鈥� a 200,000-man army, maybe! Or if you sent 50,000, or 80,000, or 100,000 鈥� we got problems! And that could be possible! I don鈥檛 know that it is. But it could be possible. So they鈥檙e going back. They鈥檙e going back. I鈥檓 telling you.聽So if they come, that鈥檚 great. And if I lose, I guess they stay. But if I win, they鈥檙e going back. A lot of people will say, oh, that鈥檚 not nice. We can鈥檛 afford to be nice! We鈥檙e taking care of the whole world, we鈥檙e losing our shirts on everything we do! Everything we do!

And the flames just keep rising higher.