Muslim advocacy organizations and Somali American community members in Minnesota have expressed deep concern over student safety and rising Islamophobia after Donald Trump shared a video of a St. Paul kindergarten graduation ceremony online.
The 14-second video, which shows several young girls wearing hijabs, was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account without a caption. The clip was originally taken from a graduation livestream at Gateway STEM Academy, a public charter school in St. Paul.
Local leaders have said that sharing the video has amplified online narratives targeting Minnesota’s Somali and Muslim communities, MPR News reported.
Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of CAIR-Minnesota, a Muslim civil rights, legal advocacy and grassroots organization, stated that his group’s immediate priority was ensuring the safety of the families, staff and students at Gateway STEM Academy.
“We’ve been working to provide some support to the school,” Hussein told the publication. “Obviously, once a president makes a blatant targeting of a community and a school, the next thing is to worry about those actors who may act upon this behavior and potentially create threats to the school.”
Hussein criticized the decision to share the footage of the children.
“I mean, it’s incredibly sad, disappointing that the president would target pretty much kindergartners and claim that somehow them being in their dress is somehow questionable when this is a nation built on the essence of a strong foundation of freedom of religion,” he said.
CAIR-Minnesota has urged community members to report any threats or discriminatory incidents to both civil rights groups and law enforcement.
“It fits into line with what we have been seeing,” Hussein said. “This demonization and targeting of Somali Americans here in Minnesota and across the country. That has resulted in additional attacks, threats, intimidation, among other things, that has impacted this community.”
He added that safety was the number one concern.
Malika Dahir, the executive director of Reviving Sisterhood, a Minneapolis nonprofit dedicated to Muslim women’s advocacy and leadership, said she was shocked by the social media post.
"I immediately was horrified,” Dahir told MPR News. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the president would be putting images of children, kindergartners, on display like that, putting them in danger to Islamophobes.”
Dahir explained that the school livestreams graduation ceremonies so that friends and family in other states can participate. Parents have grown increasingly anxious now that the name of the school has spread widely across the internet, she told the outlet, adding that the situation highlighted the growing necessity for communities to focus on digital security and rejecting hatred.
“To turn a moment of joy and celebration into something that spreads hate and fear is just abhorrent,” Dahir said.
Both Dahir and Hussein said that despite the current anxiety, they wanted the children involved to feel entirely supported by their community.
“I think they should recognize that this is their country,” Hussein said. “Some of them may aspire to be the president of the United States someday in the future. That’s who we are as Americans.”
The Independent contacted Gateway STEM for comment.
