How Minnesota Republican operatives are sowing distrust of Muslims

[TexasTowelie]

by Logan Carroll


Last year, I was asked by the civil rights group CAIR-Minnesota to research the financing behind a rash of disparaging news coverage of Minnesota’s Muslims. I assumed I’d be cataloging the work of a few small-town bloggers, and that the hard part would be managing expectations.

I smiled, deposited the check, and confined my white-boy skepticism to my notes. It took less than a week of Googling to learn how wrong I was.

Despite the stereotype of a rural “Trump Country” lashing out at immigrants, most of Minnesota’s aggressively negative news about Muslims is produced by a group of Twin Cities donors, policy wonks, and strategists tied to the state’s most powerful Republican organizations.

“You can’t object when your children are bullied by feral Somali youth,” declared Alpha News in a story last September titled, “The St. Cloud Times Shills for Refugee Resettlement.” Its president, Alex Kharam, is the executive director of the Freedom Club, a major power in Minnesota Republican politics.

Read more: http://www.citypages.com/news/how-minnesota-republican-operatives-are-sowing-distrust-of-muslims/559291181

[samir.g]

1. Muslims are the new heart of Minnesota

This will not work.