Ilhan Omar, Others Demand MSNBC’s Joy Reid Apologize For Comparing ‘Radical’ Trump Supporters to Muslim Extremists: ‘Hurtful and Dangerous’

Reed RichardsonSep 1st, 2020, 7:07 pm
 

MSNBC host Joy Reid came under fire on Tuesday for comments from the Monday edition of her show, The ReidOut, in which she analogized Islamic extremists and “radical” Trump supporters like Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three people and allegedly murderd two, and other examples of vigilante violence by fans of the president.

During a panel discussion with Naveed Jamali, editor-at-large for Newsweek, Reid decried the violence by Trump supporters but also laid the blame for encouraging their incendiary behavior at the feet of the president in a long question to Jamali.

“When leaders — let’s say in the Muslim world talk a lot of violent talk and encourage their supporters to be willing to commit violence, including on their own bodies, in order to win against whoever they decide is the enemy, we in the U.S. Media describe that as they are ‘radicalizing’ these people, particularly when they’re radicalizing young people. That’s how we talk about the way Muslims act. When you see what Donald Trump is doing, is that any different from what we describe as radicalizing people?”

On Tuesday, as a clip of this moment began to be circulated in social media, it ignited blowback and condemnation from some Muslims, including two Muslim members of Congress, and others on the left, for trafficking in Islamophobic tropes about “how Muslims act.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called Reid’s commentary “casual Islmaophobia” that is “hurtful and dangerous.”

Omar’s fellow Congresswoman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) echoed Omar, calling out Reid’s words as “harmful anti-Muslim rhetoric” before demanding an apology.

Other critics weighed in, one claiming that if Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had made these comments, there would be calls for him to be fired.

Notably absent from those condemning Reid was her Monday night guest, Jamali, to whom her comments were made. He weighed in on Tuesday as the social media backlash began to build, defending the MSNBC host, although he inaccurately implied the criticism was only coming from white men.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

Tags: