As President Joe Biden seeks to reassure Muslim American voters amid the Israel-Hamas battle, the White Home knocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for downplaying what he referred to as “so-called Islamophobia” on the GOP presidential debate Wednesday night time.
“In what’s a heartbreaking disaster, violence and hateful rhetoric in opposition to Muslims and Arab Individuals and Sikhs is spiking throughout our nation,” White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates mentioned Thursday in an announcement to NBC Information. “President Biden believes we’ve got an pressing obligation to return collectively as Individuals and stand in opposition to each type of hate. It’s not management to denigrate the very actual ache that Islamophobia is inflicting; it’s cynical and merciless. Neither is it management to unfold the harmful pretense that preventing in opposition to one sort of hate someway subtracts from preventing one other; that’s solely an indication of a determined want for self-reflection.”
Within the debate, DeSantis and among the different Republican candidates mentioned the federal government ought to concentrate on combatting anti-semitism, not Islamophobia.
“What’s Biden doing? Not solely is he not serving to the Jewish college students who’re being persecuted, he’s launching an initiative to fight so-called Islamophobia. No, it’s the antisemitism that’s spiraling uncontrolled. That’s what we’ve got to confront,” DeSantis mentioned.
The White Home on Thursday famous that Biden in Might rolled out what was billed because the first-ever U.S. nationwide technique to struggle antisemitism, months earlier than he launched an analogous effort to fight Islamophobia. Late final month, the White Home introduced an effort to counter antisemitism on school campuses.
“President Biden is taking historic and forceful motion in opposition to hate – in opposition to Islamophobia, in opposition to Antisemitism, and in opposition to anybody who tries to tear Individuals aside,” Bates mentioned.
The White Home and Biden marketing campaign have been working to restore political harm to his assist from Muslim and Arab voters brought on by his stance on Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza, so they’re desirous to a draw a distinction with Republicans, who usually dismiss Islamophobia.
Muslims Individuals voted overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020. However neighborhood leaders in swing states have mentioned they may defect from the president over his full-throated assist of Israel.
