Hillary Clinton's alt-right warnings prove apt [View all]

[riversedge]

Hillary Clinton's alt-right warnings prove apt

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/hillary-clinton-alt-right-warnings-prove-apt-article-1.3342637

Brian Fallon

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS


Friday, July 21, 2017, 5:00 AM

........................................Clinton also sounded an alarm about a threat whose origins were wholly domestic: right-wing, nationalist groups that were emboldened by Trump’s rise. In August, she devoted an entire speech to outlining how Trump’s campaign was luring this so-called “alt-right” movement out from the darkened corners of the internet.

At the time, alt-right was not a household term, and Clinton’s attention to this fringe elicited head-scratching from some. But six months into Trump's presidency, the groups comprising this movement are becoming dangerously mainstream.

The latest worrisome incident occurred just this weekend. For years, a remote Muslim settlement in the Catskills, known as Islamberg, has been the subject of unfounded rumors fanned by the right wing that the village of a few dozen families is a terrorist training camp. State and local police have openly refuted these allegations and asserted that the village, founded in 1980 by African-American Muslims seeking to escape crime and crowding in New York City, is peaceful and cooperative with authorities.

But right-wing activists, clad in militia-style uniforms, descended on the town Saturday anyway and staged a rally intimidating the Muslim community there.

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The rise of these groups is one of the more insidious trends in Donald Trump’s America. Clinton’s early warning about these groups was treated as just another political swipe at Trump last summer, but it deserves heed now............................