A CNN host used a segment on Islamophobia on Monday to suggest American non-Muslims may want to start wearing hijabs.
“New Day” with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota featured a piece titled “The Trump transition: Fearful Muslim women take steps to be safe” just hours before Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 20, attempted to use a vehicle and a butcher knife to kill Ohio State University students. The ill-timed story ended with Ms. Camerota discussing ways to ease the fears of Muslim Americans.
“Maybe there will be a movement where people wear the head scarf in solidarity. You know, even if you’re not Muslim,” Ms. Camerota said, The Daily Caller reported Tuesday. “Maybe it’s the way people shave their heads, you know, sometimes in solidarity with somebody who is going through something.”
Mr. Cuomo took a breath and responded, “I think self-defense training is good for everyone.”
“Yes, I know you’re a big proponent of that,” Ms. Camerota replied.
News broke shortly afterward that Artan, a Somali immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 2014, injured 11 people in Columbus.
“Brother Abdul Razak Ali Artan, God accept him, implementer of the Ohio attack, a student in his third year in university,” an Islamic State news agency said in a statement after the attack, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Artan was shot and killed by an Ohio State University Police Department Officer Alan Horujko, 28, when he arrived on the scene roughly one minute after the attack started.
University Police Chief Craig Stone told reporters that it was “very fortunate” that Officer Horujko was able to quickly end the threat.
Ms. Camerota’s idea is not entirely new. Students at the elite Paris university Sciences Po held “Hijab Day” just five months after the Nov. 13, 2015, Islamic State attack that killed 130 across the city.
“France got 99 problems but Hijab ain’t one,” some of the head coverings read in reference to a song by American rapper Jay Z, Agence France-Presse reported April 20.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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