Source: Washington Post,
Sajid Tarar was the last person to take the stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, after Tiffany Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and others had come and gone, and after most convention watchers had started flooding toward the exits.
“Let’s pray to get our country back,” he said in his brief benediction, which the cable news channels mostly talked over. He invoked the prophet Muhammad, and said “the values reflected by our leader must reflect the values of our forefathers.” There were some cheers, and some boos too.
“God bless America, God bless you, God bless Donald Trump,” he said.
Tarar is a Muslim, and he’s a Muslim for Trump. He might seem an unusual choice for a convention speaker, even after prime time, for a presidential candidate who has called for a ban on Muslims.
But Tarar considers himself “part of the angry Americans against the traditional politicians, and non-functioning, non-working Washington D.C.” Trump, he said, is "a doer.” He’ll go strong against extremists such as the Islamic State, where Obama has been weak, he said.
“And he’s an outsider. He says whatever he feels like. He doesn’t have some staffer writing his speeches. He says whatever he feels like.”
And Tarar doesn’t actually believe that Trump said all those bad things about Muslims.
He didn’t really say “Islam hates us,” Tarar insists.
He “didn’t hear” Trump say that 27 percent of Muslims are militant. He “didn’t hear” former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who will speak Wednesday, call for a “test” for all Muslims — and deportation for those who don’t pass the standards of American values.
He told Fusion, the online news site, in April: “When Donald Trump has said something about Muslims and Islam, he doesn’t mean American Muslims, he’s talking about terrorists.”
But: “No,” he says — “He didn’t tell me personally."
Over the past few years, civil rights groups have cited increasing attacks and threats against Muslims in America, often against women wearing headscarves. And every time a Muslim carries out an act of violence somewhere, people “look at me different,” Tarar said.
