Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump addresses supporters at a campaign rally, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, in Grand Rapids, Mich. Carlos Osorio/AP
African Extremist Group Al-Shebab Shows Trump in Recruitment Video
Video of the GOP frontrunner appeared between old clips of now-deceased al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.
Soundbites from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have been included in a recruitment film released by Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda based in Somalia.
Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from entering the US, which was met with cheers at his South Carolina rally in December, is sandwiched between old clips of now-deceased al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who warns that the US is not a safe place for Muslims.
The 51-minute propaganda film was released by al-Shabaab’s media arm al-Kataib on Jan. 1, according to reports from SITE intelligence group. The original video has since been removed from YouTube, but the segment featuring Trump and al-Awlaki has been shown in news reports.
Around 11 minutes into the video, Trump is shown making his speech to supporters in December. He says: “And so remember this. So listen. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the *** is going on.” (Trump’s expletive, “hell,” is beeped over by al-Kataib.)
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Ahead of this clip, al-Shabaab shows al-Awlaki, who was killed in a US airstrike in Yemen in 2011, saying: “Muslims of the West, take heed and learn from the lessons of history. There are ominous clouds gathering in your horizon. Yesterday, America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching, and Ku Klux Klan. And tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps.”
After Trump’s speech is shown, the video returns to al-Awlaki once again, who warns, “The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens,” and calls on Muslims in the US to “either leave or you fight.”
Quartz has contacted Trump’s presidential campaign and will update this post with any response.
Trump’s comments on banning Muslims from entering the US were strongly criticized by both Republican and Democrat politicians. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Trump’s words meant he was “becoming ISIS’ best recruiter,” at a primary debate in December. “They are going to people showing them videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” she added.