Trump clip blasting Muslims turns up in purported terrorist recruitment video

The video weaves together Trump's call for banning Muslims' entry to the U.S. with archival video of now-dead top al-Qaida recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki.

A clip of Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., has been included in a purported recruitment video for the Islamic State. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
A clip of Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., has been included in a purported recruitment video for the Islamic State. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

A clip of Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. has been included in a purported recruitment video for a terrorist group. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

(USA TODAY) A recruitment video purportedly released by a major al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group and aimed at American Muslims includes a clip of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., SITE Intelligence Group reported Saturday.

The video weaves together Trump’s remarks, delivered at a campaign appearance Dec. 7 in South Carolina, with archival video of now-dead top al-Qaida recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki calling on Muslims in the West to either leave or “stay and fight.”


In the archival clip, the American-born al-Awlaki, who was killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen, calls on Muslims in the West to “learn from the lessons of history.”

“There are storm clouds gathering on your horizon,” al-Awalaki says, noting America’s history with slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. “Tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps.”

The video shows Trump saying: “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 [expletive] is going on.” The group bleeps out his use of the word “hell.”


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The clips are part of a 51-minute propaganda video released by al-Shabab, al-Qaida’sSomalia-based affiliate. It is the second in a series of two al-Shabab recruitment videos highlighting American-born jihadis fighting for the group in Somalia, according to SITE, a U.S.-based organization that monitors extremist activity online.

The video was distributed Friday on Twitter by the al-Kataib Media Foundation, an Islamist militant organization, SITE reported, according to Reuters.

The video comes two weeks after a heated exchange between the Trump camp and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said during a Democratic candidates’ debate last month that Trump’s remarks about Muslim immigrants made him the “best recruiter” for the Islamic State, a terror group not affiliated with al-Shabab.



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She suggested the extremist group was using Trump in its recruiting videos.

The statement was strongly rejected by Trump, who said on ABC’s This Week on Dec. 20: “Knowing the Clintons and knowing Hillary, she made it up.”

He also demanded an apology from the Clinton campaign, which replied: “Hell, no!”

The Clinton camp, however, clarified her comments by saying she was not referring to a specific video, but that the sharp remarks by Trump about Muslims were being used on social media in the Middle East to recruit new radical followers.

“She’s not referring to a specific video, but he is being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda,” Clinton communications director Jen Palmieri said, using an acronym for the terror group.

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