Al Shabab recruiting video features Donald Trump
The Al Shabab video includes a clip of presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States.
In this Feb. 13, 2012 file photo, an armed member of the militant group al-Shabab attends a rally in support of the merger of the Somali militant group al-Shabab with al-Qaeda, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. The defections of two American Islamic extremist fighters in Somalia highlight tensions within the insurgent group al-Shabab over whether it should remain affiliated to al-Qaeda or switch allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to an al-Shabab commander Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015.
(AP Photo, File)
Mogadishu, Somalia
Al Qaeda's East African affiliate has released a video to recruit American blacks and Muslims that includes a clip of presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States.
The 51-minute video by the Somalia based Al Shabab militant group says there is institutionalized racism and religious segregation in the U.S. and radical Islam is the way to fight back.
In the clip of Mr. Trump, he calls for the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
The video, which SITE Intel monitoring group said was released by extremists on Friday, presents several Americans who died fighting for extremism in Somalia and encourages American youths to follow their example
Al-Shabab is fighting a Somali government backed by African Union troops.
In the December televised Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said that Trump had become "ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," Clinton said during the debate on ABC. "So I want to explain why this is not in America's interest to react with this kind of fear and respond to this sort of bigotry."
Trump responded that Mrs. Clinton was "a liar."
"It's nonsense. It's just another Hillary lie," Trump said on NBC's Meet the Press. "She lies like crazy about everything, whether it's trips where she was being gunned down in a helicopter or an airplane, she's a liar and everybody knows that. But she just made this up in thin air."
Factcheck.org agreed that there was no evidence of a video produced by ISIS at the time she made the statement.
In October, CNN reported that Al Shabab leadership had pledged support for ISIS.