Here's The Hateful History Of Falsely Accusing U.S. Muslims Of Celebrating On 9/11
Donald Trump said this weekend that he watched “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans in New Jersey “cheering as the World Trade Center came down” on 9/11.
“I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday.
“It was on television. I saw it,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos again on Sunday. “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down.”
While elements of this conspiracy have circulated on anti-Islam blogs in recent years, no footage or credible reports have ever surfaced of any Arab-Americans or Muslims celebrating in New Jersey as the Twin Towers fell.
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told BuzzFeed News Trump was “either mistaken or he’s lying.”
“This has been one of these vile memes on the anti-Islam hate sites for some time, but there’s actually no evidence to support it whatsoever,” Hooper said. “And it’d be interesting if he personally saw it. That would be quite interesting since it didn’t happen.”
On Sunday, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter that Trump’s claims were “absurd.”
So, what’s going on?
Well, we know that footage circulated in the wake of 9/11 that appeared to show Palestinians in East Jerusalem celebrating the attacks. Here’s some old NBC footage:
The footage was shot by a Reuters camera crew in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, according to the news agency. An online rumor that the footage was 10-years-old proved false.
That’s a long way from New Jersey, though, and Trump’s target here — as in many recent comments — is American Muslims.
Ironically, the roots of this one may be in another racist online meme: The “Dancing Israelis” conspiracy theory.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that works to counter anti-Semitism, described Trump’s comments as “a variation of the anti-Semitic myth that a group of Israelis were seen celebrating as the Twin Towers fell.”
This myth has long circulated, particularly in the Middle East, as part of a conspiracy theory that blamed Israel for the attacks, which were proudly claimed by Al Qaeda.
A group of five Israeli men were detained in New Jersey after the attacks, after a woman called police to report men sitting on the roof of a white van and filming smoke billowing from the World Trade Center, the details of which can be found in this 20/20 report from 2002. The woman said the men were taking photos of themselves with the scene of destruction in the background.
While questions were raised about the men’s possible ties to Israeli intelligence, no charges were laid against the men and they eventually returned to Israel.
According to 20/20, one of the men later denied to Israeli media that they had been “celebrating,” saying they had simply stopped to record what they were witnessing. “The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event,” he said.
Trump’s comments also seem connected to the baseless reports on anti-Islam websites that American Muslims in Paterson, New Jersey, were celebrating on the day of the attacks.
Source: www.buzzfeed.com