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After the African al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab released a new recruitment video featuring footage of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump during a December rally saying if elected he would ban all Muslims from entering the country, the reality television star and real estate mogul again defended his comments and played down the use of his words by the Somali militants.
"Look, there's a problem," he said in an interview with CBS that is scheduled to be released Sunday. "I bring it up. Other people have called and say you have guts to bring it up because frankly it's true and nobody wants to get involved. People that are on different persuasions than me right now are saying, you know, maybe Trump isn't wrong. We want to examine it."
The group is using the infamous clip of Trump to try and recruit Blacks and Muslims in the United States. In the video, Trump proposes the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" to protect the country.
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Before his comments, Trump also called for surveillance of mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the country.
Trump’s comments are sandwiched between excerpts of previous video messages from the late radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who predicts the persecution of Muslims in the U.S.
Newsletter
The new Shabab video featuring @realDonaldTrump appears clear evidence jihadists hope to use him to specifically solicit American recruits.
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet)
January 1, 2016
Al-Awlaki, who born and raised in the U.S., was killed by U.S. drone strike in 2011, in Yemen.
The video, released Friday on Twitter, according to the SITE Intel monitoring group, centers on the story of several Americans from Minnesota that joined al-Shabaab and were killed in the fighting in Somalia, holding them up as examples to be followed.
4) #Shabaab vid exploits racial tensions in US, footage of police brutality, protests; Promotes Islam as colorblind pic.twitter.com/6ZA350EQzi
— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz)
January 1, 2016
In the 51-minute video, Al-Shabaab also seems to call on Black people in the U.S. by showing footage of police shootings and violence against them in places such as Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. The extremist group claims this is what is in store for American Muslims.
The militants seeks to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. They have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.
While at his latest campaign rally at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Saturday, Trump accused President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of creating the Islamic State group.
"They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama," Trump said.
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The billionaire real estate mogul also commented on Saudi Arabia’s recent executions of several terrorist and the subsequent backlash from Iran.
"In Tehran, they're burning down the Saudi embassy, you see that?" Trump said as he opened his remarks. "Now, what that is is Iran wants to take over Saudi Arabia. They always have. They want the oil, OK? They've always wanted that."
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