09/20/16 09/20/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: broadcasting from the chelsea neighborhood of new york city, this is demomocracy now! >> based on the i informationone have now, we have e every reasan to believe this was an act of terror. amy: police in new york have arrested 28-year-old ahmad khan rahami, the main suspect in saturday's bombings in manhattan and new jersey. rahami was born in afghanistan and is a naturalized american citizen. presidential candidates donald trump and hillary clinton responded.

mr. trump: these attacks and many others were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system from 9/11 to san bernardino, we have seen how failures this grain who is entering the united states puts all of our citizens -- everyone in this room -- a danger. mrs. clinton: we know a lot of the rhetoric we have heard from donald trump has been seized on by terrorists, in particular, i says, because they're looking to make this into a war against islam. response to the presidential candidate and the in new york, new jersey, and st. cloud, minnesota, where in -- were a man named dahir adan knifed 10 people. we will host a roundtable discussion. we will go to minneapolis to speak with haji yusuf with unite cloud, to philadelphia to speak with nazia kazi, author of

article in the chronicle of higher education headlined "teaching against islamophobia in the age of terror." here in new york, we'll talk to debbie almontaser, president of the muslim community network, and with cuny law professor ramzi kassssem. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the wawar ad peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from chelsea in manhattan, new york. on monday, police arresteded 28-year-old ahahmad khan rahami, the main suspect in saturday's bombings in manhattan and new jersey after a shootout in linden, new jersey. rahami was injured during the shootout and taken to a hospital for surgery. authorities say multiple police officers were also injured. rahami is now charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, as well as weapons charges. police say they identified him from surveillance video

which showed him at both sites , in manhattan where bombs were planted -- on 23rd street, where the bomb did explode, and four blocks away on 27th street, where a bomb did not explode. police described that device as a pressure cooker bomb connected to a flip phone, packed with shrapnel and wired to detonate. according to law enforcement officials, his fingerprint was found on this pressure cooker bomb, along with a handwritten note that authorities say contained references to other attacks, including the boston marathon bombing. authorities say rahami may also be linked to a pipe bomb that exploded in a garbage can earlier saturday morning in seaside park, new jersey. new details emerged about rahami and his family throughout monday. he was born in afghanistan and is a naturalized american citizen living in elizabeth, new jersey. he had traveled to afghanistan and pakistan several times in recent years. during his return trips back to the united states, he went through secondary screenings at airports. his family runs the restaurant first american fried chicken in elizabeth, new jersey. they had filed a lawsuit against

the city of elizabeth after it forced the restaurant to stop operating 24 hours a day. in the lawsuit, the family said they'd been discriminated against and harassed by police , city representatives and a , neighboring business owner, whom they alleged said "muslims don't belong here." rahami's family lost the lawsuit. other details emerged monday about a domestic abuse charge against rahami filed by his sister, who later recanted. new yoyork congressman peter ki, who was briefed by the fbi, said rahami once attempted to stab his sister. on m monday, nework mayor r bill deblasio called the bombings a "act of terror." >> based on the information we have n now, w we have n now, lie every y reasonably this was an t of terror. amy: in reaction to the weekend bombings, republican presidential nominee donald trump lashed out at all muslim immigrants and refugees, calling them a cancer from within and suggested that american security forces should follow israel's example in racial

profiling, during an interview on fox news. mr. trump: we are going to have to hit the much harder over there and we're going -- you know, our police are amazing. our local police, they know who a lot of these people are. they are afraid to do anything about it because they don't want to be accused of profiling and they don't want to be accused of all sorts of things. in israel, they profile. they have been an unbelievable job, as good as you can do. we are trying to be so politically correct in our country, and this isis o only gg to get worse. this isn't going to get better. i said you have to stop them from coming into the country. amy: democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton, meanwhile, took aim at donald trumump, saying his rhetoric was helping non-state terrorist groups. mrs. clinton: we know that a lot of the rhetoric we have heheard from donald trump has been seized on by terrorists, in , becauser, isis they're looking to make this into a war against islam. rather than a war against jihadist, violent terrorists,

people who number in the maybe tens of thousands -- not the tens of millions -- they want to use that to recruit more for their cause by turning it into a religious s conflict. amy:y: south carolina sesenator lindndsey g graham called for ri toto be tread d as a"enenemy combatant" and placed in indefinite military custody, rather than be treated as a civilian suspect. meanwhile in st. cloud, minnesota, another victim of saturday's stabbing attack has come forward bringing the number , of victims to 10. authorities have not yet named the suspected attacker, but hihs family has identified him as 22-year-old dahir adan, who was born in kenya of somali descent and who grew up in the united states. he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer on saturday. an isis website claimed responsibility, calling the assailant a soldier of the islamic state. authorities say it's being investigated as a terrorism . meanwhile, back here in new york city, residents are expressing outrage and concern over the use

of a wanted alert message that was distributed automatically to millions of phones across new york city and new jersey monday morning reading -- "wanted: ahmad khan rahami, 28-yr-old male. see media for pic. call 9-1-1 if see." it's believed to be the first time in the u.s. . that the nationwide wireless emergency alerts system was used to transform residents into participants in a region-wide mamanhunt. it sparked widespread concerns that people, particularly muslims and people of color who were not rahami could be , mistaken for him and targeted. this comes as hate crimes against the muslim community have surged nationwide, including in new york city,, where just l last week a scottih tourist wearing traditional muslim religious clothing was set on fire in the middle of 5th avenue in broad daylight. we'll have more on this weekend's bombings and the impact on the muslim american community during a round table discussion for the hour with

haji yusuf in st. cloud, nazia kazi in philadelphia, and debbie almontaser and ramzi kassem here in new york city. president obama and other world leaders are in new york city for ththe annual united nations general assembly. on monday night, mexican president enrique pena nieto faced prototest from dozens s of activists outstside the st. rers hotel in manhattan where he was speang at a didinner hosted byby the foreign policy association. the activists condemned the mexican governmement for atmpting to cover up and derail the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in the southern state of guerrero. mondayay will mark thehe two-yer anniversary of the students' disappeance. there are alsoso protests plannd against israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu over the israeli occupation of the palestinian territories, and against zimbabwe president robert mugabe over police brutality and government corruption, later in the week. the global refugee crisis took center stage at the united nations general assembly monday when 193 member states met for

the first ever summit for refugees and migrants. they signed a non-binding declaration outlining a more coordinated and humane response to the biggest migration upheaval since world war ii. this c comes as s several cocous rected an earlier aft of t summ's claration at urged them to resettle 1 10% of the refugee population each year. the united states also objected to language in the original draft that said children should never be detained. the agreement now says children should "seldom, if ever, be detained" and calls it a "measure of last resort." this comes as teenagers held at the berks county residential center -- an immigrant family jail in pennsylvania -- are protesting their indefinite detention. some have been held more than a year while they seek asylum with their mothers, who are also detained. this is 16-year-old estefany adriana mendez from el salvador responding to the u.s.'s

insistence on changing the language of the summit's declaration. >> they had said before the rejected it completely, but now they're saying it is an alternative measure. i think it should not be that way. because the truth from them is here, the children who are here and the mothers, this is a horrible experience to be in detention. because more than a year of incarceration for a child is not just without having committed any crime. the majority of us who are here, almost all of us, really, all of us come our family. we have family here to refuse us. i family in maryland and my father is in texas waiting for us. i am 16 years old from el salvador and enter the 20th of

august in 2015. i arrived at dili, texas and i was there for two months. passed and irthday turned 16. on the 20th of october, we read -- we arrived at berks and avenue for 11 months. i have 393 days total in detention and soon it will be my birthday. truthfully, i hope not to turn 17 here. again, while incarcerated. amy: at a follow-up summit today president obama will call on 45 u.n. member nations to join with corporate donors to increase humanitarian aid for refugees. donald trump's son, donald trump, jr., has again sparked outrage after he tweeted a graphic reading -- "if i had a bowl of skittles and i told you just three would kill you. would you take a handful? that's our syrian refugee problem." along with the graphic he tweeted -- "this image says it all."

in response, skittles parent company wrigley americas said in a statement -- "skittles are candy. refugees are people. we don't feel it's an appropriate analogy. we will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing." meanwhile, in syria, the united nations has suspended all aid after its aid convoys were attacked by war planes monday outside aleppo. at least 18 of t the convoys wee destroroyed in the attttack, whh came as aid workers were unloading food and other aid at a red crescecent warehouse. the syrian observatory for human rights says 12 people were -- 20 people were killed in the attatack. the red cross condemned the attack as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law." the u.n. says it may amount to a war crime. it''s not known who cacarried dt the attatack. ththis comes as the ceceasefire brokereded between the u.s. . ad ssia aeded at crcreasing thehe fifighting in syria and allolong

for aid to reaeach besged areas appears s to have collapsed aftr u.s.-led bombers attacked a syrian military position on saturday, killing scores of government soldiers and allowing isis fighters to overrun the survivors. it w was the red cross that t sd 20 civilians were killed. inews from y yemen, new reports suggest saudi arabia may be using u.s.-supplied white phosphorus in its ongoing bombing campaign. white phosphorus is a deadly munitition that releases a a thk smoke that is so powerful, it can burn flesh to the bone. u.s. law says white phosphorus is only allowed to be used for signals and creating smoke screens when the u.s. sells it to other countries. but human rights activists are concerned the saudis may be using it against civilians in yemen, which would be in illegal under u.s. law. in news from the campaign trail, a new investigation of donald trump's tax plan, which he unveiled last week at the new york economic club, finds it

would create huge tax breaks for the rich and only much smaller tax breaks for low and middle-income family. the analysis was done by the d.c. think tank the tax foundation. it estimates that under trump's plan, people earning $5 million could save a staggering $800,000 on their taxes each year. the foundation also found his plan to be enormously expensive, costing at least $10 trillion over a decade. this comes as a "new york times" investigation has found that donald trump has received at least $885 million in new york city tax breaks for his real estate projects since 1980. the "new york times" also reports trump successfully sued three mayoral admiministrations when new york sought to deny him tax breaks for a pair of trump skyscrapers. in more campaign news, former president george h.w. bush may be voting for hillary clinton in the fall. the news comes from kathleen kennedy townsend, who posted on facebook a picture of herself

with president bush and the words -- "the president told me he's voting for hillary!!" in tulsa, oklahoma, police have released a video showing a white police officer shooting and killing unarmed 40-year-old african american terence crutcher while his hands were in the air. officer betty shelbyby shot crutcher around 8:00 p.m. onon friday after his car broke down. some of the videdeo released monday c came from policee helicopter footatage. one can hear the man in the helicopter saying about crutcher -- "that looks like a bad dude,e, too."." in onene video shot from a polie helicopter, crutcher is s seen with h his hands in ththe air, followed by anan officer wititha drdrawn weapon. a woman is yelling "shots fired"

his armsdideo shows falling to the pavement. the justice department is investigating the shooting is a possible civil rights violation. the largest prison work strike in u.s. history has entered its third week. the intercept reports that as of last week at least 20 prisons in , 11 states continued to protest including alabama, california, florida, indiana, louisiana, michigan, new york, ohio, south carolina, and washington. the incarcerated w workers organizing committee says at one point, about 20,000 prisoners were on strike. with protest has come punishment. several facilities were put on lockdown, with prisoners kept in their cells and denied phone access both before and during the strike. organizers were also put in solitary confinement. meanwhile, members of the free alabama movement say a serious humanitarian crisis is developing at holman prison, where guards have been walking off the job in safety concerns and overcrowding. prisoners there are stabbed on a regular basis and call the

facility the slaughterhouse. a guard stabbed by a prisoner earlier this month died last week. the warden was stabbed in march. and in peru, an activist who won this year's prestigious goldman environmental prize has been injured in a clash with security guards. the incident took place sunday at a gold mine run by a subsidiary of the u.s.-based mining giant n newmont. maxima acuña has tried to block the company yanococha from constructing an open-pit gold mine in an agricultural area where it could contaminate the water supply and cause water shortages for thousands of people. supporters say acuña and her partner were severely hurt after an attack by hitmen allegedly hired by the mining company. this is her daughter ysidora chaupe. securityning company's grabbed her by the hand. in other words, they held her hostage. when she asked f for help, she yelled. she wanted to defend herself by herself, but they attacked her,

scratched her on her body. and she says they threw her, pushed her, and when they pushed her, she fell and she fainted. amy: and those are some e of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on monday, police arrested 28-year-old ahmad khan rahami, a suspect in saturday's bombings in manhattan and new jersey, after a shootout in linden, new jersey. rahami was injured during the shootout and taken to a hospital for surgery. he's now been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, as well as weapons charges. police say they identified rahami from in surveillance video. we are broadcasting here in chelsea, right between the two sites in the neighborhood. one on 23rd street, which did -- were a bonded explode and , four blocks away on 27th street, which did not explode. police describe the device on 27th street as a pressure cooker bomb connected to a flip phone, packed with shrapnel and wired to detonate. according to law enforcement

officials, his fingerprint was found on the pressure cooker bomb, along with a handwritten note that authorities say contained references to other attacks, including the boston marathon bombing. authorities say rahami may also be linked to a pipe bomb that exploded in a garbage can earlier saturday morning in seaside park, new jersey. new details emerged about rahami and his family throughout monday. rahami was born in afghanistan and is a naturalized american citizen who was living in elizabeth, new jersey. he had traveled to afghanistan and pakistan several times in recent years. during his return trips back to the united states, he went through secondary screenings at airports. on monday, mayor deblasio called the bombings in active terror -- act of terror. meanwhile, another victim of saturday's stabbing attack k in sanko, minnesota, has come for bringing the number of the is to attend. other orders have not yet named

the suspected attacker who was killed by an off-duty police officer, but his family identified him as 22-year-old dahir adan, who was born in kenya of somali descent and who grew up in the united states. an isis website claimed responsibility, calling the assailant a soldier of the islamic state. authorities say it's being investigated as a terrorism . well, today we host a roundtable discussion about the attacks and the response to them. we will go to break and then we will be joined by people from philadelphiaia, st. cloud, minnesota, and from right here in new york.k. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

we are broadcasting from the of new neighborhood york. holy's here in new york have arrested 28-year-old ahmad khan rahami, the main suspect in saturday's bombings in manhattan and new jersey. was bororn in afghanistan, a naturalized american citizen. we're also going to be talking about ththe attack in st. cloud, minnesota, when a roundtable discussion about these attacks and the response to them. joining us from minneapolis is haji yusuf, community director of unite cloud, a st. cloud group that promotes cultural understanding. he spoke sunday at a press conference o on behalf of the somali-american community after the stabbing. in philadelphia, we're joined by nazia kazi, a professor of anthropology at stockton university and author of article in the chronicle of higher education headlines, "teaching against islamophobia in the age of terror." here in new york, dr. debbie almontaser is president of the muslim community network. in 2007, she was forced out of her position as the founding

principal of the khalil gibran international academy. the equal employment opportunity commission later ruled that the new york city department of education discriminated against her on account of her race, religion and national origin. alsoso joining us here in new yk ramzi kassem, professor of law , at the city university of new york school of law where he directs the clear project, which stands for creating laww enforcement accountability & responsibility. welcome all of you to democracy now! we're going to begin with dr. debbie almontaser. your response to what happened this weekend? >> thank you for having us. i have to say this week as been really, really hard for me, as well as for other american muslims across the country to see what is happening to our nation. and on two levels, there is fear for our own personal security, especially for american muslim women who identify as muslims

hijab, as well as for our city, our country. it has been a really, really hard week. but i have to say in addition to that, there has been just a great deal of love and ally -ship fromom across the cocount. i hahave received e-mails, textt saying, how are you? it is wonderful to see our city as well as our country standing together united as we faced these a believable attacks. amy: ramzi kassem? >> we are all new yorkers. no one is unaffected by these events. no one is untouched. as a new yorker, i'm thankful no one was hurt -- seriously. no one was killed. that is one of the primary things, the first reaction all of us as new yorkers have. then our mind moves to, what happens next when these events take place?

is anlly what follows overreaction by policy makers, legislators, the people who implement policies so law enforcement agencies on the ground tend over react. that sets the stage for private acts of hatred, of which there have been many. in new york city alone over the summer alone. that is my concern at this point. i think it is a concern shared by many. others who follow these issues another american muslims. -- and other american muslims. amy: from so many different up in of all different groups, there's a kind of reaction when the people were being sought. please, don't let it be, whoever they are. your thoughts about that? >> i think that is a natural reaction because especially in the u.s. when the backlash to incidents like this when they have been perpetrated by muslim identified individuals is so

often swept to broadly, included an overreaction by government and obviously, private acts of hate by citizens -- minority of individuals that act on our prejudices and take it out, as debbie mentioned, on women who visibly appear to be muslim or others. in 2015, based on a recent study, anti-islamic incidents when up by 78%. this is a study that draws on official hate crime data from many states. in anti-ararab incidents targeting people who are middle eastern or a pure to be middle eastern. that is troublesome. that is the thing we are most focused on right now. , i: dr. debbie almontaser you last week before all of this at a public event and you said to me how afraid you were. this was right after the woman covered wearing hijab was set on

fire here in new york. this is before the war that took place -- horror that took placee this w weekend in ouour communi. >> when i saw you last week and we had spoken, it is quite chilling to be on saks fifth avenue window shopping like any other, you know, person, enjoying the view come and join what is out t there to purchase, and standing there and having someone come from behind you and let your shirt is quite terrifying. for me, as well as for other american muslim women that i have encountered and i speak to all the time is i tell them to please be vigilant, no their surroundings, make sure e they'e traveling with other people, always be of public places where there are a lot of people -- disdain in the middle of the subway platform. it is not to say that we live in a dangerous city. there are so many wonderful

people. just the other day, yesterday, walking in the east side of manhattan and walking across from a woman who j just looked t me and smiled. to me a and meant a lotot it means a lot to other people.. so there arere people of good faith out there who know and understand what it is like to be an american muslim during this political season. amy: professor ramzi kassem, i would to get your response to this alert that was issued. yesterday morning, right before we walked into the studio, like the in the morning, it is wanted alert message disturbed it automatically to millions of phones across new york city and new jersey. and it said, when you look down -- it sounds like an alarm in every building because everyone's phone goes off at once. it said -- "wanted: ahmad khan rahami, 28-yr-old male. see media for pic. call 9-1-1 if see."

it is believed to be the first time in the u.s. this nationwide wireless emergency alert system was used. your response to what took place. >> like you, and i think like millions of new yorkers, i was surprised to see that on my phone. i had never seen anything like that before. i have gotten thee amber alert and similar warnings -- amy: it is believed to be the first time it was used in this way. >> automatically, i started to think, what are the consequences of this? it is not something they have studied, not something they're doing in a deliberate way based on any research as to what the consequences might be. on one level, i am grateful the individual was apprehended as quickly as he was because we did not have the time to see the consequences of this sort of unprecedented alert play out. my main concern was it really opens the door potentially to acts of vigilantism, and to hate

crimes. i was really alarmed that the authorities when ahead with this unprecedented move without really knowing what the consequences might be for individuals, other than the person they were after. amy: it is not clear if this is what ultimately led to his being found in new jersey, but that is a near-death that is developing right now, that this one out in a -- and a bar owner in linden sees this guy sleeping in the over his a hoodie head. he calls police, the police come and recognize him. as they wake him up, he immediately draws his gun, they said, and there was a shootout. he is alive, they are alive, and he is now being operated on in a hospital. >> but still, it is a drastic measure. the end does not justify the means. i do not think it is a step the authorities should take likely

-- lightly without further consultation. to my knowledge, there was not much public discussion around the possibility of this sort of measure being taken in these kinds of cases. where does one draw the line at this point? who decides when this measure can be taken? again, my main concern is, has her been enough thought dedicated to the possible unintended consequences of taking these kinds of measures in these types of cases? amy: i want to go to minnesota where another attack took place this weekend. a man in st. cloud walks into a local mall and, according to reports, knifed 10 people and he is shot dead by a security guard. i want to turn right now to haji yusuf, who is the community directctor of the unite cloud, a st. cloud group that promotes cultural understanding. on sunday, you spoke at t a pres conference on bebehalf of the

somali neck and community. talk about who the man is believed to have not all of these people, identified by his family he has been killed. is an exceptional student, graraduated high school -- his local high school, went to college at st. cloud university. young kid.joyful always smiling, very social and outgoing. so on that fateful day, from what i gathered from the family the morning after, is that he a new iphone 7. when he left, was really, really happy. anything thator told them otherwise. they don't know what happened after that.

out to theeir son go mall to buy an iphone. amy: what do you believe then took place? community, the whole community of st. cloud, first of know, we are victims. there are victims, so we still don't know what happened. we are praying for the victims and we stand with the victims in and around st. cloud. and also in the state of minute showed a -- minnesota. everyone is shocked. regardless of what group you come from, everyone is really shocked and surprised. right now at the moment the family is requesting -- what we know so far right now is what the witnesses have said and what law enforcement has also informed us, there is a security

tape. the family is also looking for answers as well. they want to see the security tapes and see what happened, really, so they can really understand. at least they can know what happened to their son. amy: police have confirmed his and an isisr adan website has claimed responsibility, calling the of thent a soldier islamic state. the attack is being investigated as a case of terrorism. agaiain, he was shshot dead by n off-duty police officer. so talk about how the somali community is dealing with this and the greater minneapolis-st. paul-st. cloud area. is this one of the largest population of somalis? the young man was born in kenya, but is of somali dissent. is this one of the largest population of somalis in the united states? mean, with a

population of somalis, muslims, that live in the state of minnesota. as you know, i think people have come together on this occasion because the somalis in the state of minnesota do care about the state of minnesota. they love the state. this is their home. they know they have been welcomed greatly to the state of minnesota. the state of minnesota has opened its arms for a lot of other immigrants. many people of religious beliefs. there is the historical part of -- a lot of groups coming to this country and there is a book that is being written about the story of this country in the history of this country. and the somali story -- the somali-american story is part of the book. with that said, we have come with ouras a community allies, with different groups in different religious faith-based

groups and everyone, rallying behind this one issue. we also want to deal with this issue in a way that we are working with law enforcement, working with other communities around the state of minnesota. once we get answers and we know what happened, then we will respond together as a community. not as a group, but as a community. because we have all been affected by this incident. it is not a definition of a community when one person or two people do this. it does not mean the whole community is for that. sometimesas you know, -- there is evil in every community. evil walks among us all the time. the incident of evil that has happened in central minnesota a couple of weeks ago when we had jacob and kidnapped

for 27 years, he has been terrorizing the state of minnesota. people are afraid for their kids. it is one incident. nobody went back and asked to explain -- and said, is he a christian? is he in? what part of -- did he live in? but this one incident has put st. cloud -- the state of minnesota on the spot. on somali american community the spot. we have to call them out. working with our state, our law enforcement, working with everyoyone involved, we need to find answers to what happened. amy: that is a significant point when timothy mcveigh, for example, blew up the obama city probably -- building, what christian men were not rounded up around the country or the whole question about, what does this mean about why men who are christian? it was dealt with as a crime.

care told the wall street journal he and other muslims had received threats in the wake of the stabbing. he also set a car flying confederate flag had been driving around somali neighborhoods on sunday night harassing residents. do you knonow anythihing about ? out -- i tweeted that get a lot of calls from the community and from everyryone as part of unite cloud. we work with everyone in our timidity. does we not only speak for anyone group, we speak for everyone on issues of homelessness, our neighborhood and taking care of our neighbors. two people started this organizationon. a somali american, a born andive christian raised in st. cloud. we have come together. we get a lot of information from the community from tweeps, our

inbox, or a call. we got a call about any vehicles driving around the neighborhoods where muslims live in there were honking and threatening, verbally abusing. i've are incident on highway 944 wewere a somalali american girla family wearing a hijab got harassed by two or three bikers. we get these goals right now. monday, a lot of somali american families did not take their kids to school, did not want to go outside because the kids were scared. everyone is scared. it was a scary moment, even for me. i had to go pick up fofor my two-year-old because my wife was a little scared to go outside that night. on.ou have that going the best way to do it is for us to rally behind other faith groups in central and st. cloud and leadership so we can respond

together, working with the police chief, working with the mayor, working with the leadership in st. cloud, and also generally, the law enforcement. because we really want to know. that is the only way we can really work this out. we want to support all leadership involved to get to the bottom of this. to know the truth and really what happened. that is the only way we can go about it. ifo, as a community of indeed it is proven, if indeed there are facts supporting that young dahir adan -- first of all, his own individual actions. he does that represent myself or anybody that i know in the state of minnesota who is somali american. two, if it is proven that dahir adan was behind us and yet connection to a non-terrorist organization from outside, then we have a problem in our communities. and we need to admit that.

and we need to find out ways and how to deal with that problem. we cannot keep on living on denial there are problems because we know in any community, there are issues and people need to deal with them before it is too late and we are more issues or something like this happening on a larger scale. so we have to work with our neighbors. we have to worork with h our cocommunity. we have to work with our state and local enforcement. we have to find solutions together and respond together. i think that is important. most of the time people want to respond to things and many ways. it confuses people. people do not understand the motives. at the end of the day -- go ahead. amy: i went to bring in nazia kazi professor of anthropology , at stockton university. her latest article for the chronicle of higher education is "teaching against islamophobia in the age of terror." as we have this discussion and all that took place this weekend

in our neighborhood here in new two bombsin chelsea, being placed your -- one went off, 29 people injured. then in new jersey, i think it was a backpack of some height bombs found outside in elizabeth new jersey train station. ask the comment was homeless man who found the backpack and told the police what they saw inside, and also anpes, area of new jersey where there was going to be a race for marine families and the bomb went off in a trashcan. it was only because the race was late that nobody got hurt. nazia kazi, your resesponse? >> as an educator and some and who spends a lot of time in a university classroom, i get to see firsthand the ways in w whih a lot of our young people understand t terror. most of them have grown up in

the so-called terror age, post 9/11. the bad guys, to put it so simply, have been osama bin laden, isis, saddam hussein, and al qaeda. there is very little nuance in their understanding of the global realities. one of the things i find in the university classroom. and i talked about it in this piece, the puzzling sense of a deep hawkishness the systemic ignorance. on the one hand, students will have very strong opinions about what the u.s. needs to do globally. it actually have very little knowledge about the history of saint muslim majority countries. i take serious leave the fact that these things coexist. i think the war against terrorism, the u.s. war on terror, would not have been possible without a deep public anti-intellectualism. in other words, out of the syststemic ignorance that t ther on terror means, requires in order to operate. many of my students have been

said these things about the free w worldd none -- unfree and excecept of these bibinaries wholesale. our job as eduducators is to, wn i argue, to insert critical thininking as a terrorism prprevention tool. a way of thinking past the binaries and thinking geopolitically, historicacally, and contextually, making connection between u.s. racism domestically and impererialism abroad. amy: where going to go to break and come back to this discussion. teachesr nazia kazi anthropology at stockton university. debbie almontaser is the founding principal of the khalil gibran international academy. haji yusuf is with unite cloud in st. cloud, minnesota. and raramzi kassem is a cuny

school of law professor. stay with usus. ♪ [music c break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from chelsea, from new york city, that actually has just opened up the last 12 hours on 23rd street between sixth and seventh where the bomb went off. the police, while there, have now opened the street and tv crews and vans are all their continuing to film. we are having a roundtable discussion about the bombings in new york and the stabbing attack in minnesota, the bombings in new jersey as well. to turn toeturn -- the response of the major party candidates, of donald trump, the republican presidential nominee, who responded to the week and attacks by lashing out at the muslim immigrants and refefugee, calling them a cancer from within, suggested american security forces should follow

israel's example in racial profiling. he said this during an interview on fox news. mr. trump: we're going to have to hit the much harder over there and we're going to -- you know, ouour police are amazing. our local police, they know who a lot of these people are. they are afraid to do anything because they don't want to be and theyf profiling don't want to be accused of all sorts of things. in israel, they profile. they've done an unbelievable job , as good as you can do. we are trying to be so politically correct in our country, and this is only going to get worse. to stopaid is, you have them from coming into the country. amy: let me play donald trump a little more of what he edges say and hillary clinton's reaction. mr. trump: these attacks and many others were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system from 9/11 the san bernardino, we have seen how failures to screen who is entering the united states puts

all of our citizens everyone in this room, at danger. mrs. clinton: we know that a lot of the rhetoric we have heard from donald trump has been seized on by terrorists are particularly isis, because they're making this into a war against islam. amy: lindsey graham called for ahmad khan rahami to be treated as an enemy combatant and placed in indefinite military custody rather than be treated as a civilian suspect. i heard a countertrterrorism expert today on television saying that is exactly what isis once, to be treated as a military force. they of enemy combatants, not to treat him sibley as a terminal. -- simply as a criminal. what does this mean? >> is important to move past both sides of the conversation, as exemplified by hillary clinton and donald trump.

most of the conversation goes through the security lens. donald trump is arguing that muslims are a threat to security and hillary clinton is arguing we should not discriminate against muslims because that would endanger our security as well. there's this instrumental approach to muslims where we're just a pond and a larger security game. in the global security game. i think we really have to move past that discourse. where talking about american muslims who have been here for for some generations. this is not new. this is their home. the idea they should all be collectively punished a muslims in the future should be prevenented from coming year because one muslim happened to do something criminal is, frankly, racist. it should be debated as a policy proposal. then you move on to labels like enemy combatant and even the label of terrorism itself. that impedebels understanding. they blind as to other possible understandings of these acts of violence, ranging from the personal to the political to the psychological.

as long as we're obsessing over who to call an enemy combatant, who to label a terrorist, we're preventing ourselves from gaining a deeper understanding from whatever the phenomenon is. i should say phenomenon plural because whatever drove that young man, if you did in minnesota to whatever he did, is going to be different from what drove the individual here in chelsea to plant these bombs. i think really our understanding going to what nazia kazi was saying, we're very real blinders on in this country that are preventing us from gaining a real meaningful understanding of what is happening domestically and what is happening internationally. as someone who has represented guantanamo prisoners for over a decade, i can tell you the notion that we should generalize that practice, generalize is not onlytices, absurd and runs against u.s. international law, but it is the practice of totalitarian regimes. inn professor nazia kazi

philadelphia, your response to what donald trump and hillary clinton had to say and also on the point you are making in your "teaching against the isislamophobia in the age e of terror"? i think what talk about immigrgration to the u.s., we nd in public discourse a much wider conversation. if we are talking about some always a minnesota, we can fall back on these cliches of immigrants coming here for a better life. we have to ask about t the conditions that lead to migratioion. whwhen we're talkingng about somalia, that means talking about u.s. military interventntn , real political and economic policies that need -- lead to this type of migration. that is absolutely critical. the otheher thing we need toto e aware of in this moment, any time things like this happen, we

see the space open up for muslim americans to represent themselves, to o speak up. this roundtable might be an example of that. usuaually what happens, one of o tragic outcomes. one, muslims will reputedly condemn isis -- repeatedly condemnn isis. two, americans will wrap themselves in the american flag and position t themselves as the quintessential patriot. what happens, we aren't tatalkig about the real issues. we ought to be talking about increasing role of militarization of daily life in thee u.s. or the ramping up of our military apparatus abroad. and it is really the classroom that could become a space for this type of engagement. amy: debbie almontaser, you have been dealing in your own family with attacks on your family. yourself are not now taking public transportation. >> it is just being cautious given that this attack took

place right here in the cityty. i made the decision, the conscious decision not to travel in public transportation. but again, yesterday i was in the middle of the city near city hall. it was fine. sometimes, you know, i have this sense to overreact him as well as others. it is justifiable and understandable, and we cannot live in fear. this is something that i am constantly telling members of my community is that we cannot live in fear, that we are part of this society, that we need to live our lives and we need to be unapologetically muslim and continue contributing to society whether it is in our professional field or in our communities volunteering and doing things that we have been doing. and so that is one thing that is really critical. iareally appreciate what naz is talking about. there was an op-ed published

today in the gotham gazette that i've written about using the classroom as a place for teachable moments and a make sure that we address racism and bigotry. and given the number of hate crimes that have taken place locally and nationally, how important it is for teachers to establish a caring and nurturing environment where children could feel free to speak their minds and know that their fellow students are there to support them and that their allies versus being bystanders when happens in the school cafeteria or schoolyard. amy: it is interesting, one ofof the things that have come out in the last 24 hours about ahmad khan rahami is yearars ago, his sister filed a complaint with the police about domestic violence. we are finding this so much. but in aecanted that, number of these cases that the first signs are violence within

the family, whether it is omar mateen attacking his wife who shot up the pulse nightclub and led to so much pain and misery, that actually it is taking domestic violence seriously at the beginning -- that might be preventative. >> is certainly is. the thing that is disturbing, amy, what we see constantly is we see there are mental health issues that are brought up, immediately that narrative is changed. for example, right here in new york city. i was very perturbed by the notion of some of our elected officials saying we're not calling this a terrorist attack. why aren't we calling it a terrorist attack? it is a terrorist attack. when someone seeks to terrorize people by putting bombs anywhere, that is terrorism. and so waiting in holding back on it as if to say we're waiting to see if it was a muslim am a therefore telling of a terrorist

act, is really unfortunate and it really puts american muslims in a position that makes people wonder is islam inherent to violence and terrorism? and that isn't the case. it is really important for us to work very hard in changing that narrative and changing the language. when something happens, we have to call it what it is, whether it is a christian, a muslim, a jew, anyone who does anything in the name of violence against people, we need to call it out. guests int to ask our philadelphia, nazia kazi, how you use the clalassroom to teach againstt islamophobia. s strategyyn evolving as i develop ways to relate current events that are happening in real-time to a classroom. i i think one of the things is o really regard the tragic event

as teachable moments, asas momes to really get our students to posit and liberally reflect upon the nature of the world around us. a perfect example of this was last year when the paris attacks happened. a really fruitful conversation took place about why there was a with paris,idarity but -- as i said earlier, we need to ingest critical thinking into the dialogue. we need to get away from knee-jerk vengeful nests and think very broadly about the u.s. role a as an imperialist superpowerer. my students are surprised when they learn about everything from karen kandra -- iran contraa to white phosphorus being supplied to saudi arabia. these types of moments in the classroom really lead to a way

more fruitful dialogue than just cliched notions about islam being a religion of peace or muslims worshiping the same god as christians and jews. it leads to a far more fruitful conversation will we begin to think geopolitically. amy: ramzi kassem, final word? >> my hope again in the coming week, and i'm sure he will be dashed, that this time lawmakers and policymakers won't come out with harebrained proposals to reform the way our immigration laws are implemented and that this time law enforcement agencies like the fbi and the nypd will not defend on entire communities rather than conduct their work in a more targeted fashion. i'm sure my hope will be --. time and again, every time something like this happens, be it in new york or overseas or elsewhere in the u.s., there's no shortage of dozens of people who will come into our offices at clear saying, for example, there being approached for questioning even know they have

no relation to what happened. amy: we have to leave it there. i want to thank ramzi kassem, law professor, haji yusuf, debbie almontaser, and our guests in