Two different scenarios are playing out regarding the bombing of Dar Al Farooq mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota: Governor Mark Dayton declared on Sunday that it was a terrible, dastardly, cowardly act of terrorism.” And from the Trump Administration, which has been quick to condemn acts of terrorism elsewhere abroad and in the U.S. – abject silence.
In fact, Sebastian Gorka, a top national security advisor to the president, said recently on MSNBC that the president would not say anything until “local authorities provide their assessment.” In fact, the local police have handed the investigation over to the police. As reported in Buzzfeed, Gorka said:
“When we have some kind of finalized investigation, absolutely — so, you know, there’s a great rule, all initial reports are false, you have to check them and you have to find out who the perpetrators are,” Gorka said in response to a question about whether the White House will address the bombing.
“We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes, by right wing individuals in the last six months that turned out to actually have been propagated by the left,” he said. “So let’s wait and see and allow local authorities to provide their assessment. And then the White House will make its comments.”
Basically Gorka is saying that until proven otherwise, the Trump administration wants to make sure the mosque bombing is not a “fake crime.” Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, told Buzzfeed News that he found the comment outrageous and offensive. “Waiting for an investigation to be complete has not been something Trump has done when the perpetrators have been Muslim. This hypocrisy must be called out. What prevents the president from expressing sympathy for members of the house of worship that was attacked?”
Indeed, regarding the attacks in London at the London Bridge and in Manchester at the recent Ariana Grande concert, President Trump was quick to condemn the attacks and call out the implicated terrorists without waiting for any sort of confirmation on if the attacks were “real.”
Muslims and others took to twitter to express their anger and dismay at the apparent double standard, tweeting under the hashtag #selectivesilence. Here are some of the best:
Trump’s #SelectiveSilence on terrorism demeans the office of the President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/fEvC2KqZXM
— ReThink Rights (@ReThinkRights) August 7, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump hasn’t even mentioned that a mosque was firebombed this weekend. Wishing MN values were in the WH #selectivesilence pic.twitter.com/qH4puBIws0
— Ashley Houghton (@HeyitsAshleyH) August 7, 2017
A mosque was firebombed this weekend. President Trump is talking about fake news. Not a peep from him. #selectivesilence pic.twitter.com/OABJCQCZwq
— Ashley Houghton (@HeyitsAshleyH) August 7, 2017
#SelectiveSilence from Trump administration is so blatant, so crass, so unPresidential & so unAmerican https://t.co/IfaS0mppMS
— Zainab Chaudary (@chaudary_zainab) August 7, 2017
Muslim Americans are far more likely to be victims of hate crimes in this nation than commit them #SelectiveSilence pic.twitter.com/XrJSVn09tY
— Kate Chance (@katehchance) August 7, 2017
•OKC
•Oak Creek
•Dylan Roof
•Sandy Hook
•Batman theatre
•Abortion clinic bombings
•ATL Olympics
•Anderson Breivik
•https://t.co/Yl31WB9NEc https://t.co/fszRy3HUmZ— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) August 9, 2017