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Huma Abedin blasts Trump’s ‘Islamophobia’

by Ben Kamisar - 12/08/15 9:44 AM ET

Huma Abedin is blasting Donald Trump’s call to block Muslims from entering the United States as “Islamophobia.”

“Trump wants to literally write racism into our law books,” Abedin, the longtime Hillary Clinton associate who is a vice chairwoman of Clinton’s campaign, wrote in an email to supporters Monday night.

{mosads}“His Islamophobia doesn’t reflect our nation’s values — it goes far enough to damage our country’s reputation and could even threaten our national security.”

Abedin, who is herself Muslim, concludes the email with a call for action, directing readers to a petition to “Stand with Hillary” and then a donation page.

“Unfortunately, Trump is leaning into the kind of fear of progress that very well could help him win the nomination. We have to be ready to stop him,” she wrote.

Abedin has been a key player in Clinton’s orbit for more than a decade, serving as an aide during her time in the Senate, on the 2008 campaign trail and in the State Department.

In Trump’s statement calling for a ban on Muslim immigration, he notes polling by the Center for Security Policy.

J. Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has called the group an “extremist think tank headed by [an] anti-Muslim conspiracist.”

The poll has been criticized by the Georgetown University Bridge Initiative, which tracks Islamophobia, for being “deeply flawed.”

The Center for Security Policy has repeatedly accused Abedin, as well as conservative activist Grover Norquist, of being a clandestine agent for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Huma Abedin