hi everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. mass appeal. pope francis in cuba, drawing huge crowds and some critics. what he said, what he left out, and a preview of his trip tomorrow to the u.s. religion and politics. ben carson stands by his inflammatory comments on muslims in the white house >> i would not adz woe indicate that we put a muslim in charge

of this nation. >> why critics say it shows where he is unfit for the oval office. refugee relief, the u.s. promises to give more money and take more syrians, our report from the front lines of the crisis in europe. plus tipping point, california's sequoias who stood the test on time. >> we want to understand the effect of the drought on the sequoias. >> but they could be under threat in what could be a wake-up call for the planet. ♪ he's not the first pope to visit communist cuba, but today pope francis became the first to visit the hometown of fiddle and raul castro. in cuba, the pope struck a delicate plans when it comes to

politics. when he begins his trip to the u.s. tomorrow, he is expected to make some waves. jonathan betz has the story. >> reporter: this is no ordinary flight. on board pope francis. thousands lined the street as we made his way to what is known as the cradle of catholic fate. it the pope's first visit here. >> i think that this time is very important because of the fact that the united states and cuba are opening doors to each other. >> reporter: thousands stood in hot temperatures to hear his message of god's mercy. he ended saying:

later the pope traveled to santiago in cuba. he is expected to speech with bishops and hold another mass before leaving tuesday afternoon for washington. in washington, the pope will be met by president obama and will address congress. in new york, the vatican will raise its flag at the u.n., and the pope will speak before the general assembly about poverty justice and climate change. that will be followed by mass for 20,000 people at madison square garden in new york city. >> today, tomorrow, i'm just going to go around maybe sure everything is okay -- i have got a couple of rehearsals myself for some of the masses, the vespers at the kat drel.

>> reporter: awaiting the pope's arrival, these inmates who are polishing the papal chair for his visit to a prison. and nuns are working around the clock to make more than 100,000 wafers for has. 1.5 million catholics are expected to see the hope cap off his historic visit to the u.s. john than betz, al jazeera, new york. >> stay with us for complete coverage of the pope's visit to america. now to a disturbing report out of afghanistan. the "new york times" says u.s. troops were ordered to ignore the sexual abuse of boys by their afghan allies. the problem is rampant in afghanistan particularly among military commanders. and according to the report, u.s. soldiers faced discipline for trying to intervene. libby casey has more.

>> reporter: john the allegations are that afghan commanders abused boys in a practice which translates to boy play but is actually the rape of children. in that it was happening on military bases and when marines and soldiers tried to raise the alarm, they were told not to interfere. the "new york times" details the experiences of two members of the u.s. forces who finally beat up an afghan commander who was accused of chang a boy to his bed as a sex slave. one of those green barrett barrettes -- ber rates is now about to be kicked out of the military. however, a congressman wrote a letter to ash carter saying:

so there is growing concern in congress both over the allegations of abuse and the lack of military response. >> so libby has there been an official response from the military? >> well, the white house came out with a statement today. josh earnest said that officials are deeply concerned about the welfare of afghan boys who may be exploited. >> reporter: protecting human rights including by countering the exploitation of children is a high priority for the u.s. government. we monitor such atrocities closely and have continually stood up for those who suffer exploitation. >> when asked about the military's chain of command he referred questions to the pentagon. and a pentagon official said off camera that there has never been a policy to ignore human rights

abuses and members of the military can certainly take their concerns up the chain of command. >> what can the u.s. government do about these allegations of abuse? >> we talked earlier today to former assistant defense secretary, lawrence korb and he said it's against the law to have members work with foreign military that is engaging in incidents of human rights abuses because of the layhey law. >> basically saying that you can't help people who are going to commit these human rights abuses. i mean basically that's what we're talking about. and the fact of the matter is, if you are aiding them, training them, and then you do these things, you are enabling them, are we providing equipment, money and stuff like that? and i think that's the real issue here. >> reporter: korb says that's

basically aiding and abetting john, and that's on top of the basic moral concerns about the fear of alienating afghans through ignoring these practices. john? >> libby thank you very much. we move on to greece now. alexis tsipras was sworn in as prime minister again today. he called the vote after heavy criticism after he agreed to new austerity measures in exchange for a new bailout. now to the refugee crisis. the white house said it will give over $400 million in additional humanitarian aid and increase the number of refugees it takes from 70 to 85,000 next year, up to 100,000 the following year. meanwhile in europe there are signs that the bottleneck of refugees could be easing.

lawrence lee reports from sloven slovenia. >> reporter: it is now becoming clear that the refugees might hope their journeys will be a little quicker, a little less painful. at this reception center in slow vainia, they are on the move, and are they happy about it. >> yes, it's quicker. because this countries are [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: when will you go to austria do you think? >> austria? maybe today, after lunch. >> yeah. >> reporter: on the train? >> yes, on the train. >> reporter: slovenia is slowing a sense of logistical awareness. they recognize here too that the movement of peoples from serbia is getting faster, at the end of the summer, it appears on the most basic level that europe is finally showing a bit more organization. >> translator: it's true, we have 250 beds available here.

the refugees change every day. as soon as 250 leave, the next people rife. >> reporter: so the next bus turns up, off they come, and they are asked to go in. the reason why they can cope with these influxes of refugees, is because the turn around of people is so fast. refugees we're told only spending about 12 hours here, have a rest, get changed and move on to the train station. that in turn frees up bed space for the next wave to come. but even staying just a few hours was too much for this group. they refused to go in, and said they just wanted to go to the railway station. after weeks of being hearded around by various police forces, their patience have run out. >> take us for train station. thank you very much, thank you, slovenia, drop us to train or bus station. that's it. >> reporter: so they walked up to the train station. the $18 ticket would take them to the other side of the autrian

border. what they didn't know was you could get a train from here straight to the netherlands, but the have been told the refugees must go yet another system in austria. it does demonstrate something at least is working now, that countries have given up trying to keep people from going where they want to. lawrence lee, al jazeera. russia is calling on the international community to take concrete action after its embassy in damascus was attacked today. no injured were reported. the russian foreign minister blamed syrian opposition forces for the attack. in moscow, israeli prime minister benjamin netenyahu met with russian president vladimir putin. netenyahu asked about russia's milita military build up in syria. putin said that russia would

actress ponsably. but he said his main goal is to defend the syrian state. volkswagen is now the subject of a criminal investigation. according to reports, the german auto maker is accused of installing software on diesel-powered cars to cheat on emissions tests. the ceo has apologized and said the company has commissioned its own investigation. >> reporter: this was the frankfort international motor show monday, the voel ks having a gone stand, under the bun -- bonnet of a dark secret. vehicles wagon has been el bellishing its emission standards for years. >> translator: there are health risks involved here, and

possibly death as a consequence of hire emissions. it cost vasts amount of money and there is the threat of fines and class action lawsuits. what is also very important, the image is severely damaged. >> reporter: the news for the makers of the people's car, the famous beetle, famously remade, could get much worse. >> they are ordering them to recall about half a million diesel powered vehicles, jettas, golfs, and beatles primarily built between 2009 and 2015, all powered be the same two-liter diesel engine. epa is talking about a fine of potentially as much as $18 billion. >> reporter: $18 billion is of course an enormous sum of money, but add to that the cost of half a million vehicles recalled in the u.s. that the epa says vw

must return to proper functioning, and then take into account that the german government has just announced an emissions inquiry into vehicles sold in europe, and you see that the potential for total catastrophe gets bigger and bigger. vw has set its future course on engines built to use clean diesel. the very idea might be cast into dauth. >> diesel is a significant part of manufacturers mix, and if diesel has been shown to produce these large amounts knock house gases, then the viability would come into question. >> reporter: it is all very damaging for the brand. what if everything in life was as reliable as a vw was its

previous slogan. jonah hull, al jazeera. london. wisconsin governor scott walker announced he is suspending his presidential campaign today. he has fallen in the polls. one recent survey has him at less than one-half of 1%. the governor has also struggled to raise funds in recent weeks. walker says he is leaving as an act of leadership. >> i was sitting at church yesterday, the paster's words reminded me that the bible is full of stories about people who were called to be leaders in unusual ways. today i believe that i am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. >> walker also encouraged more republican candidates to drop out. he said a narrower field would offer a clearer alternative to current front runner, donald

trump. rick nelson is in tallahassee, florida tonight. rick, what happened to scott walker? >> hi, john. it's a story of a guy who had a lot of the right predicates to run for president, but missed a certain level of charisma and presence and stage craft and preparation at the end of the day to be able to compete in an environment especially where you have -- take donald trump out of the equation of the scenery eating oxygen sucking part of donald trump out of the equation, you have a lot of other very smart fluent candidates, folks who can talk about policy all day long and bigger issues all day long, and walker kept getting caught flat footed -- >> really? you that scott walker was not as good as all of those candidates

you just described, including jeb bush? >> listen, i -- i had a little caveat with jeb there. he is definitely no marco rubio or ted cruz or fringely even carly fiorina. and i think scott is a tremendous leader for wisconsin a great guy, and i think he would have been just fine as a candidate in another year with a different environment. he has a kind of dorky midwestern charm that people like on one level, but which ear in a different political climate right now, and he just didn't have the big-room presence in those debates. >> big-room presence is one thing. but what are the messages that these republican candidates who are breaking through, like donald trump or -- or -- or dr. ben carson, or carly fiorina, what messages are they sending? >> well, the key message here

right now that -- that's much broader than even the presidential campaign is americans are profoundly upset and distrustful of washington, d.c. the inertia and cronyism and failure in d.c. over and over and over again, has just reached a boiling point with americans, and they are looking for a candidate who can sort of be the avatar for that. they will shift as they get closer to the election -- they will shift to focusing on who is the optimum muchup against either hillary clinton or joe biden or bernie sanders may be. but right now they are furious and letting it show, and scott walker just didn't catch that moment. >> do you want to pick one early for us? who would run the best in this field according to you? >> well, i will tell you right now, i think there are two

candidates that present the toughest challenge to hillary clinton, who is likely still their nominee are carly fiorina who is a woman, has tremendous focus and intensity to her. and the other person is somebody that i know for a fact, the clinton people have told me this over the occasional cocktail, they are terrified of marco rubio. they are absolutely mortified about that. >> still a long way to go. >> oh, very. >> thank you, rick. >> thank you, john. a prominent islamic american group is calling for ben carson to withdraw from the race. he was asked whether a president's faith mattered, and

he said it depends on what that faith is. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. i absolutely would not agree with that. >> his views are inconsistent with the united nations constitution. for that we really urge politicians, the general public, community leaders, presidential candidates, to repudiate his views, and we ask mr. ben carson to withdraw from the presidential race, because he is unfit to lead. >> carson is standing by his comments. he said muslims running for office should publicly reject islamic law. we'll have more on this store in a special report at the half hour. james blake met the major of new york today. he was tackled earlier this month by a new york police officer who mistook him for a

credit card fraud suspect. he said the officer never identified himself and should be fired. he asked today's meeting with the police commissioner, and the mayor, who says the nypd is making reforms. coming up next, california's mighty sequoias, how the crippling drought is threatening one of the longest living organisms on earth.

firefighters say they have made progress in battling the valley fire in northern california. much of it is now contained. but officials say thousands of homes are still at risk. the blaze has killed at least three people and destroyed nearly 1700 homes. the fire is considered one of the worst in california history. climate change and drought also taking a toll on california's giant sequoias. they are losing limbs and needles like scientists have never seen before. a team of experts have been studying the sequoias by climbing them. what they are finding is alarming. jake ward has more. jake? >> reporter: the giant sequoias are being hit by sort of a double whammy, not just the effects of four years of drought here in california, but also unprecedented climate change, and that has caused scientists to gather a team to respond to a crisis. >> they were losing their older

needles, their older leaves in amounts that were -- i had never scene before. >> reporter: giant sequoias like this are very, very special. they are the largest organisms on earth, and they are ancient, but after four years of drought, and the warming effects of climate change, researchers are now worried about their future. at roughly 2,500 years old. this one predates christianity and islam. it's over 75 meters tall, more than 240 feet tall. scientists are going to go up in it to try to take water samples, and god help me, i'm going to follow them. oh, man. anthony climbs to the top of these trees to test them for signs of stress. he has been doing this kind of things for about 20 years. this is my first time.

i thought i could hear somebody playing house music in the parking lot, and i just realized that that is my heart. eventually i made it. and the climb taught me a new respect not just for the scientists but for the tree itself. you can feel the weight of history in the weight of this tree, so it's extraordinary to be here. here is the view. check this out. warmer temperatures mean the trees need enormous amounts of water. >> typical giant sequoia tree of this size might use anywhere between to 5 and 800 gallons of water in a single day. >> the trouble is the see area snow pack is now at a 500 year low. the sequoias seem to be the healthiest of the punch. as much as a quarter of thor

types of trees are dying of thirst. >> the sugar pine seems to be suffering a lot of the mortality. panda rosa pine as well. >> reporter: i'm going to show you something that i have not looked at yet. ready? unbelievable. and now, i'm going to try to come down. that was by far the scariest thing i have ever done. i have never felt so insignificant. this may be the last time that scientists climb this tree. part of this project is to test the accuracy of the airborne observatory which is conducting flyover observations of whole forests at once. >> typically in the past we have missed most of the forest and tried to make an inference about the forest from examples of a few trees.

and with the advent of airborne remote sensing it has enabled us to collect data over enormous scales. >> reporter: the sequoias are surviving this so far, but the team points out that the combination of drought and rising temperatures is unprecedented. >> now that we're in the fourth year of this severe drought, they still seem to be holding up pretty well. if we had another year as severe as this one, i would say all bets are off. >> reporter: this was a seedling during the roman empire. the history of the united states is a tiny fraction of its past. the question is whether it and its kind can survive here in the future. john, if you want to root for these trees, the way to root for them is to root for snow. scientists are predicting a lot of rain, but we really need

snow. the snow bank -- literally is a bank for stree -- trees. and without the snow there is no telling whether these giant trees can survive in the future. >> we heard your expert say another year all bets are off. do you want to translate that? >> if we get into a fifth year of drought that's an unprecedented event. and researchers are saying further down the line we could see droughts that last, five, ten, maybe even 20 years, trees like this probably have not seen that before, and we don't know whether the biology can handle it. we have not seen any worst case scenario. >> fascinating story. thanks. coming up ben carson's controversial remarks about muslims. we'll take an in-depth look.

hi, everyone, i'm john siegenthaler. and this is al jazeera america. words that have ignited a fire storm. >> i wild not advocate that we

put a muslim in charge of this nation. >> spoken by presidential candidate ben carson, and his campaign is not backing down. tonight what carson's comments say about the politics of faith, the race for president -- >> we ask mr. ben carson to withdrawal from the presidential race, because he is unfit to lead. >> -- and religious tolerance in america. in the race for the white house, religion is front and center. ben carson put it there. what he doesn't want is for someone who is muslim to hold the office of president. why would he say that, and what do the other candidates believe? we're looking at that issue tonight, along with a closer look at faith and politics. a lot of people are talking about this, and we think it's important enough to discuss. first carson's comments. here is del walters. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this

nation. i absolutely would not agree with that. >> reporter: dr. ben carson says he doesn't think islam is consistent with the constitution, but would consider voting for a muslim voting for a seat on capitol hill. >> congress is a different story, but it depend on who the muslim is and what their policies are. >> reporter: his comments ignited a fire storm. >> we ask mr. ben carson to withdrawal from the presidential race because he is unfit to lead. >> reporter: but carson isn't backing down in an interview with the hill on sunday he said: he was referring to islamic law, adding quote:

his spokesperson later added, quote: other candidates from both parties are weighing in on carson's statements. hillary clinton quoting the constitution in her tweet adding: texas republican ted cruz agreed, saying: louisiana's governor reacted with his own criteria, for a hypothetical muslim candidate, saying that person should quote: >> i want to take questions -- >> reporter: all of this comes in the wake of a trump townhall

meeting when comes were made. >> reporter: we have a problem in this country, it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. >> reporter: donald trump was criticized for his handling on the comment. he was asked on cnn why he didn't do more to correct the man. >> we certainly do have a problem. it wasn't people from sweden who blew up the world trade center. >> reporter: federal law enforcement authority say tips to the muslim community have been key to thwarting plots against the u.s. but a pew poll shows that opinions of muslims have not improved. when asked to rate their feelings towards major religious groups, muslims came in last. but it reflects some of the politics of the far right. a growing number of conservative

voters believe the u.s. is losing its judao christian heritage. . >> we're joined by the executive director of the arab american group of new york. let me start with you. give me your reaction to ben carson. >> i think it's pretty appalling to have a black american candidate for president say a muslim shouldn't be president. the party currently thinks obama is a muslim, and also probably comes from a party that does not want to see ben carson as president. >> lenny your reaction? >> i agree with her 100%, i think it's a farce that dr. carson would say that. i think the republican doesn't not want to see a black man in office, they just don't want to

see a black democrat in office anymore. this seems to be rehashing history unnecessarily. >> in some ways it strikes me, linda, that this has been something that has been under the rug, swement under the rug for a long time. there are a lot of americans out there -- i don't know how many, but maybe a few, but they believe this. just like that guy that got up and spoke at donald trump -- so is it a good thing that this has kind of been uncovered in some ways or not? >> i think that's why donald trump and ben carson are playing an important role. we are 7 to 10 muslim americans in this country. 1.7 billion of us internationally, and we are facing probably the most hostile civic environment, and these two candidates are exposing what america really was created on, based on racism and ideology to

be honest with you. >> i listened to the commentary today on television and heard the comments and thought what are muslim children going to think when they hear a discussion about a muslim can't be a president of the united states, and it strikes me that that was exactly what was said about african americans, right? >> ironically enough, we were talking about this ten years ago. listen, to every muslim american child out there, you can be president of the united states. you can be a great president of the united states regardless of your gender and regardless of your socioeconomic background. do not let these false statements sway you from doing anything that you want to do. >> let me stay with this, lennie. i hear you say this, i don't hear all of those republican

candidates saying that. >> well, they are allowed to be wrong. >> and -- and to be honest with you, john, this is the problem with islamaphobia, it's acceptable. plain blank. when the guy got up to ask donald trump that question about muslims are the problem and obama is a muslim, a lot of the main stream media started focusing on the fact of why didn't he correct that obama wasn't a muslim. it wasn't about the fact that the guy basically called genocide and wants to get rid of all muslims in america. and this is happening every single day in all parts of the country and no one is standing up and saying it is wrong. >> lennie you have stood up and said it is wrong, but why hasn't the g.o.p. come out stronger on this. >> if you are trying to get

christian conservative votes and you are ben carson, and your poll numbers have come down, and you need those christian conservatives to do well in iowa, this is a well-timed statement. do i agree with the statement, no? from a political strategy i understand this erroneous statement. i think there are people in the republican party that stand for religious freedom. and i stand for that. and you have to stand for it all the way through. surprisingly enough ted cruz said something to defend muslim americans and their faith. and i think the constitution is the number one law of the united states. and we abide by the constitution. >> we heard ben carson try to split hairs and say it's sharia law, muslims need to reject

sharia law. what do you think? >> i think politically you can throw muslims under the bus in elections, that's what lennie was saying. but ted cruz was reading from the constitution. and that's the point we're making. to say that any republican candidate has stood up against muslim americans, i haven't personally heard that yet. >> what did you say lennie? >> i said that's good enough. if you stand behind the constitution, that says we protect religious freedom. that includes muslim americans. >> there are some that are elected to office in this country, maybe not the white house, but other offices -- are you surprised, linda, that this has become such an enormous issue? >> i mean for me to be honest with you, i can't care what ben carson says. back to your comment to the muslim children. this is airing on every single

main stream television. and that's the problem why i think this is a big deal, the psychological impact this has on young people. and i'm 35 years old, born and raised in the u.s., and i'm happy to share my birth certificate, but i can be the president of american, and that's what ben carson has to accept. >> you may be some day. >> you never know. from john kennedy saying he would not take orders from the pope, to president obama having to deny he is a muslim, a candidate's faith has often been a key issue in the race for the white house. >> i'm grateful for your generous invitation. >> reporter: john kennedy was the first and only catholic-elected president. al smith lost in a landslide in 1928. kennedy was determined not to get anti-catholic sentiment doom

his candidacy as it has smiths. so two months before the 1960 election. kennedy addressed a group of protestant ministers in houston in which he said the division between church and state is absolute even to a catholic. >> i believe in an america that is officially neither catholic, protestant, nor jewish, where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the national council of churches or any other source. >> it's still considered one of the most influential speeches on religion in american history. religion again became an issue in 2000 when al gore picked senator joe lieberman to be his running mate. he was the first jewish candidate to appear on a major party ticket. president obama is a practicing

christian, but he has been dogged by rumors that he was actually a muslim. he has publicly denied it many times. even now more than six years into his presidency, some people still refuse to accept the truth. >> we have a problem in this country. it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. you know he's not even an american. >> reporter: in the last election cycle the mormon mitt romney had to defend his religion. >> we are more months and growing up in michigan that might have seemed unusual or out of place, but i really don't remember it that way, my friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to. >> reporter: this year senator bernie sanders is seeking the nomination. he is jewish. and he spoked a conservative christian campus. he didn't specifically address his faith, but he said religion is part of his world view.

>> i am motivated by a vision, which exists in all of the great religions in christianity and judaism, islam, and buddhism, and other religions. >> ray suarez is also the author of the wholly vote, the politicses of faith in america. i asked ray the difference between being legally qualified for president, and the notions people have of what a president should be. >> at the beginning of the 1950s, dwight eisenhower who had saving the world on his resume and beating back fascism in europe, he was told by a political advisor that anybody contemplating a run for president had to have two things, and he didn't have them. a political party, and a church. in short order he declared himself a republican and began to vie officially for the republican nomination.

he joined the presbyterian church, but wasn't baptized until after he was sworn in as president. and it's kind of hard to kofrn template in 2016 a republican candidate for president not being baptized or saying to the public, well, i haven't done it through all of my adult life, but gosh, the first thing i do after i become president is get baptized. >> why do voters have all of these anxieties about the faith identity of a president? >> well, when you scratch the surface, it's not necessarily bigotry, but there's fear, suspicion, a lot of animosity that sometimes tied in with the same sort of fears and anxieties that people have about immigration. but it takes on a particular weight with the presidency, because unlike a lot of countries, we don't have a separate person who is the head of state and another person who is the head of government.

we're one of those countries where we have the head of government and the head of state as one person. so one person symbolizing the country as the living embowdyment of the country to the rest of the world and we ourselves, and also gets into the daily nitty-gritty of running the place, and we have seen in a lot of the anxieties of having a black first family, just what a journey it was for a lot of americans to accept the idea that the country was changing in a way that now we were symbolized to the rest of the world by barack and michelle obama, and their two young daughters. it's been a journey for the united nations and it's one obviously since we haven't had a jewish head of state or somebody who would admit to being an atheist as our president, and as

we have heard over the weekend are not totally sure about the idea of a muslim in that c capacity. >> ray, good to see you. thanks very much. there are two only muslim members of congress, both are in the house of representatives. a democratist from indiana, and a democrat from minnesota. there are no muslims in the u.s. senate. : ♪ >> we'll be right back.

it's inconsistent with the values and principles of american, then of course it should matter, but if it fits within the realm of america and consistent with the constitution, no problem. i -- i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. i absolutely would not agree with that. >> ben carson talking this weekend. tonight we're looking at reaction and what it says about the 2016 race and the state of religious tolerance in america. we are joined by a muslim

american comedian and writer. welcome back. give me your reaction. >> ben carson to me is the meek mill of politics. he is a whack rapper. he is losing in the polls. he is a scrub for lack of a better term. so i could care less what he has to say. >> when people speak -- i mine is that just a reaction to try to get away from all of this? you must deal with this in your comedy act every night, right? >> there is a narrative on television that people hate muslims. and if we just focus on what people say negative about islam, it creates this impression around the world that people hate muslims. but most people either don't have an opinion or are very accepting. the more we get involved it discouraged muslim kids to want to get involved.

and it's very frustrating. >> even donald trump said he has a problem with radicals when he said on cnn, quote: what is ben carson's aim? is he trying to take a page from donald trump. >> ben carson got owned in the debate. so he is going with muslims, saw, saw, sharia! ah! it's a move of desperation. so i'm not going to acknowledge it. i'm concerned about unemployment. why crimes are happening all over in this country, and critical issues affecting us. how are you going to get us back to work? how are you going to solve our tax problem? that's what i want to hear about. >> so you say that there is a narrative that americans hate muslims that is being put out on

main stream media, and it's not fair. >> it is not fair -- >> but doesn't it exist >> i mean we looked at people on tv -- >> there's bigotry and whatever. but if you focus on one bad apple -- >> but how many bad apples are out there. >> thomas jefferson had muslims serving in his administration. george washington, ben franklin all of these other people spoke well of islam. so for me that's what the issue is. yes, there's very troubling comments, but if we harp on this, we're not going to be moving forward as a community. >> we have been harping on it a bit. hillary clinton tweeted this: >> exactly. >> but you are a young guy.

>> i am -- youngish. [ laughter ] >> you must have experienced times like this, where you heard things that were said that were negative about people you love. >> absolutely. >> what did that do to you as a kid? >> for me when i deal with ignorance and hatred or bigotry, i realize people come from limited experiences. so if i get outraged, i could be the only muslim that somebody encounters, so if i get outraged that just reinforces their experience. i'm not saying sweep it under the rug and ignore it. but as a community we have to come together, and everybody plays a role in this. >> maybe you helped us do that. thank you very much. an update on the 14-year-old boy who ended up in handcuffs after he brought his homemade

clock to school last week. police thought the device looked like a, quote, movie bomb. the high school freshman said he wants to impress his teacher, instead he landed in the middle of a national debate over islamaphobia. he said it wasn't the first time he felt singled out. >> in middle school, it was a rough journey. sixth grade here he said is osama bin laden your uncle. and that really got to me. >> ali asked mohammed if he had any interest in running for president. and he said since he wasn't born in the united states he wasn't eligible to run, he said instead he wants to become an engineer. that's our broadcast. i'm john siegenthaler. back here tomorrow night.

the news continues next with del walters. ♪ >> farm workers striking in mexico... >> all that tension is about what's happening right now. >> unlivable wages... >> you can work very hard and you will remain poor. >> what's the cost of harvesting america's food? >> do you see how it will be hard to get by on their salary? >> yeah >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning investigative series... fault lines invisible hands only on al jazeera america

religious tree tom. it's pope francis celebrates second mass in cuba, and takes a jab over ideologic differences. the end game. >> certain add question to the intent to the degree this is about i.s.i.l. and extremists or to the degree it's about continuing to prop up