Frank Luntz, political strategist and CBS News contributor, spoke to a group of Muslim-Americans last week about the “anti-Muslim” sentiment in America.
In the focus group, Muslim-Americans explained to Luntz why they don’t fear ISIS. He also asked the participants if they had a problem with the government bombing ISIS.
“It’s not going to solve anything,” one female panelist said on bombing ISIS. “I was born in ’93. My whole entire life we have been in a time of war. … ISIS does not have the capabilities to destroy America. Our military spending is better than the next 7 or 10 countries combined. I am not scared of ISIS, I’m not. I am scared of my government, actually. I am more scared of my government than I am of ISIS.”
Luntz asked another participant if he was more afraid of the U.S. government than ISIS.
“…I feel like every morning when I wake up, am I going to be mad because I am black in America? Or am I going to be mad because I am Muslim in America?” the panelist answered, after which fellow panelists clapped.
Watch video of the focus group:
One participant said she did not want her children to watch the GOP presidential debate because she did not want them to see the “hateful stereotyping” of American Muslims.
“I actually did a call out to Muslim parents across the country to not watch the Republican debate in front of their children, because I know that that — subjecting our children to hear the hateful stereotyping and the lumping of Muslims with terrorism in front of our children is actually something that psychologically impacts them. So that’s how deep this is for us.”
Here is a partial transcript of the panel.
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