And as in so very many other articles of this kind, Salih chronicles how Trump and so many other patriotic politicians are supposedly mean to Muslims, but he overstates his case. Nothing Trump has said or done, even saying “Praise be to Allah” to the leaders of the Iranian Islamic regime, means that it is “acceptable to hate all Muslims.”

Also like so very many other articles of this kind, Salih never comes close to dealing with the fact that people are concerned about Islam not out of “racism” or “bigotry” or “Islamophobia,” but because they’re concerned about jihad violence and Sharia oppression. 

Salih and his ilk cannot and will not grant that as a legitimate concern, because to do so would be to admit that “the religion itself is inseparable from terrorism,” which Salih explicitly denies and decries below. Yet what are we to think about all of Islam’s violent and supremacist teachings? If just one of these Islamic apologists would deal honestly with those texts and teachings, some progress might conceivably be made. But they never do so. 

“I’m a Muslim who loves America. Trump and the GOP have crossed my red line: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney never went this far. Under Trump, it’s become acceptable to hate all Muslims,” by Mohammad Ali Salih, Salon, April 26, 2026:

This coming week, I am planning to return to my White House vigil. I am an 84-year-old journalist who is Muslim, Arab and Black. I have lived and worked in Washington for 46 years.

I have done this before. I began my first vigil in 2008, appearing occasionally outside the White House. (See the image above this article.) I ended it in 2016, largely because Donald Trump’s attacks on Muslims during his presidential campaign gave me reason to be afraid. Those were followed, of course, by many anti-Muslim executive orders during his first term as president, and still more during his second term.

Nearly two months ago, Trump joined with Israel in launching devastating bombing attacks on Iran, a major Muslim country. More recently, over Easter weekend, Trump finally crossed my personal red line: He attacked Islam itself.

Many Arab and Muslim rulers are clearly afraid to criticize Trump, and apparently afraid to defend their own faith. I may be a humble, elderly journalist, but I am not afraid. I plan to return to stand in front of the White House, alone and silent. I will raise above my head a banner that reads, “What is Islam?” and “What is Terrorism?” In smaller print, it will say: “I Will Be Here Until I Die!”

Trump’s words and actions are no surprise. Throughout his political career, he has frequently used inflammatory rhetoric toward Islam. During his first campaign, he issued an infamous press release that remains a cornerstone of this discussion: “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

In a CNN interview early in the 2016 campaign, Trump said: “I think Islam hates us. There’s something there — there’s a tremendous hatred there. We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”

Throughout his first term, he criticized his predecessors for not using the specific terminology “radical Islamic terrorism.” That language is favored by many American conservatives who argue that the religion itself is inseparable from terrorism.

I plan to return to stand before the White House, alone and silent. I will raise above my head a banner that reads, “What is Islam?” and “What is Terrorism?” In smaller print, it will say: “I Will Be Here Until I Die!”

Addressing a joint session of Congress during his first year as president, Trump declared: “We cannot let this evil continue. … We are going to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, just as we have defeated every threat we have faced in every age.”

His remarks over Easter weekend arguably went much further. He criticized those he believes do not share “Western values,” explicitly linking religious identity to civilizational conflict:

Happy Easter to all, except those who want to destroy our Country with their radical religions and ideologies. We are a Christian nation, and we will not let Islam or any other force replace our heritage. It’s a Crusade for survival!

As readers of Salon will no doubt remember, he went on to threaten Iran with both profanity and deeply offensive religious mockery: “Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Muslim leaders in the U.S. were outraged, and condemned this attempt to weaponize the sacred phrase “Praise be to Allah” (Alhamdulillah, in Arabic) in a vulgar and threatening context.