San Bernardino Muslims and Trump supporters clash on Hispanic television channel
One Trump supporter said after the dinner: ‘Seeing a female across from me with the headpiece really bothered me. We’re here in America. We’re here supposed to be Americanized’
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump rallies have hit the headlines numerous times as aggressive and even violent clashes have broken out between supporters and protesters, but what happens when you sit these people down together at the dinner table?
Hispanic television network “Fusion” filmed the encounter, where a Muslim woman from San Bernardino, California, revealed how a man pulled a knife on her at a car wash just days after two terrorists went on a killing spree in the region.
The incident also occured one week after Mr Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the US.
The aggressor, 40-year-old Daniel Senteno, served four months in jail.
“Women that look outwardly Muslim, we get attacked constantly,” Sarah, who wears a hijab, told the group.
There have been around 12.6 anti-Islamic hate crimes per month in the US over the last five years.
From mid-November to mid-December 2015, there were at least 37 suspected hate crimes, according to research by Brian Levin, a criminologist at California State University.
Among the guests was also Malek Bendelhoum, who went to college with Syed Rizwan Farook, the man who allegedly carried out the San Bernardino mass shooting in December.
Mr Bendelhoum said they prayed at the same mosque but were not friends.
“When a generalized statement is made by Mr Trump, that’s when all of us fall into that bucket," said Sarah, who only wanted to be identified by her first name. “Trump scares me."
“Well, it’s not that Trump scares you, it’s the situation. You can’t blame Trump for that,” said Odila Lopez, founder of the Facebook page Christian Latinas for Trump.
Ms Lopez, who wore a Trump baseball cap during the dinner, said she was not offended by Mr Trump calling Mexicans “drug dealers” and “rapists” as she said “there’s some truth to all that”.
Shirley Husar, one of an estimated 18 African American delegates supporting Mr Trump at the Republican convention, said the proposed wall along the Mexican-US border was necessary to separate “good and evil”.
"Is good and evil important to you? Do you understand that there is that discernment of good and evil in this country?” she asked Sarah.
Sarah responded she was "offended" to be asked that question.
After the meeting, all six people were asked what they had learnt.
Sarah said she was “scared” about a Trump presidency and that the supporters she met were “closed off from hearing the truth”.
Ms Lopez said she learnt that she was "irritated" that Muslim women "had the right to wear burkhas".
“Seeing a female across from me with the headpiece really bothered me. We’re here in America. We’re here supposed to be Americanized,” said Ms Lopez.
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