Trump aide Kellyanne Conway created 'inaccurate' polls about Muslims for anti-immigration extremists
Poll was used by President-elect during campaign to justify banning Muslims from the US
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Your support makes all the difference.President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign manager once worked closely with a group of anti-immigrant extremists and conspiracy theorists, creating polls aimed at generating ill feeling towards Muslim Americans.
Kellyanne Conway, who now acts as a senior aide to Mr Trump, ran a polling firm which has worked with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) – an organisation described as an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – for 20 years.
FAIR is known for its hard-line stance on immigration and in its early years received large donations from the Pioneer Fund, an organisation dedicated to promoting eugenics and ethnic cleansing programmes.
In June 2015, Ms Conway’s polling firm conducted a survey for the Centre for Security Policy, a right-wing think tank, which found that 51 per cent of Muslims in the US believed they should be governed by Shariah law.
According to the poll, 20 per cent of Muslim Americans believed “the use of violence is justified to make Shariah the law of the land”. Ms Conway’s research was heavily criticised by human rights advocates as being skewed to support right-wing ideology, according to Mother Jones.
Despite doubts over its accuracy, this poll was used by Mr Trump during presidential campaigning following the Paris terror attacks last November, as the then-Republican candidate attempted to justify his proposed ban on allowing Muslims to enter the United States.
In the past Ms Conway has also been criticised for her close association with Frank Gaffney, a former defence official under Ronald Reagan who frequently promotes conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Last week, Ms Conway suggested she might turn down a senior role in Mr Trump’s White House if it is offered to her, to spare her family from the strain.
Ms Conway was recently involved in an angry confrontation with former presidential candidate Ms Clinton’s aide, after she was accused of “providing a platform for white supremacists”.
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