United States President Donald Trump has made headlines again on Wednesday (Nov. 29) after his Twitter account retweeted three tweets filled with anti-Muslim propaganda from a British far-right account holder named Jayda Fransen. Fransen is the deputy leader of a far-right and ultra-nationalist political group known as the Britain First. Britain First's reputation has been questioned by many groups as all of its online propaganda came from highly suspicious and questionable sources.
Anti-muslim propaganda
The three videos that Trump had retweeted contained and depicted Muslim extremists. The first one showed extremist Muslims assaulting other groups of denomination. The second video showed a certain extremist to be destroying the statue of the Virgin Mary, an iconic image of the Catholic belief. The last one was entitled "Islamist mob pushes boy off roof and beats him to death."
This was not the first time that Trump had retweeted such tweets, as he had done this before where he retweeted messages or tweets he found favorable. He even previously warned European and US security immigrations that Muslim-majority nations threaten these countries sovereignty.
When Fransen learned that the US president had retweeted her highly questionable tweets, the British far-right member rejoiced in jubilee and posted another tweet that reads, "God Bless YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!" Little did everyone know that Fransen was convicted in November of hurling abuse at a Muslim woman. Fransen is now facing charges due to her hate speech delivered at a certain event in Belfast last August.
Criticisms of Trump
Trump, later on, drew flak due to the retweets. Most of the criticisms came from the United Kingdom and Downing Street. As a result of the criticism, Trump's retweeting of the Fransen tweet landed on several major British news sites and a lot of UK officials gave their sentiments against the US president.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesperson said that the action of Trump was "wrong" and cited that the sources would just like to cause division in communities through their hateful narratives and speeches that peddle lies and stoke tensions. Britain's Muslim Council also criticized Trump through a statement and said the action was a clear endorsement of the far-right anti-Muslim propaganda group from the US president. In addition, US-based Council on American-Islamic Relations echoed the sentiments of Britain Muslim and said that Trump's retweets could also mean telling his base to hate Islam and Muslims.