Attacks Against Muslims ‘Greatest Fear’ Of Attorney General Loretta Lynch
In the wake of the San Bernardino and Paris Islamic terrorist massacres, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, speaking before a Muslim group in Washington on Thursday night, expressed that her “greatest fear” is any potential backlash against Muslims.
According to the Daily Mail, the Attorney General sounded as if it was a foregone conclusion that there would be violent retaliatory attacks against Muslims, Lynch saying that alleged recent anti-Muslim sentiments “will be accompanied by acts of violence.”
At the same time, building on the purported anti-Muslim environment and how it has bred fear among American citizens, Loretta Lynch then told her audience to avoid succumbing to any negative feelings, saying “We cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on.”
The Wednesday shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California, that the FBI is now calling an Islamic terrorist attack, was not mentioned by Attorney General Loretta Lynch during her presentation to the Muslim group. Lynch did implore U.S. citizens not to carry out any violent attacks should they feel the impulse to do so.
Along with this, Loretta Lynch also warned that anyone deemed speaking what she called “anti-Musliim rhetoric” would be investigated and potentially charged with a hate crime, reports TruNews.
According to Lynch, there have been 225 suspects charged with hate crimes over the last six years, and since September 11, 2001, “over a thousand investigations into acts of Muslim hatred, including rhetoric and bigoted actions, with over 45 prosecutions arising out of that.”
TruNews notes that a female neighbor of the Islamic terrorist couple that carried out the San Bernardino attack wanted to contact authorities because of suspicious activity taking place at the home of the Muslim newlyweds, but was afraid to do so for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, or islamaphobe.
While not addressing the San Bernardino shootings, Attorney General Loretta Lynch did make clear in her Thursday night talk at the Muslim Advocate’s 10th anniversary dinner that she had personally witnessed an “incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric” since the Paris Islamic terrorist attacks.
According to Lynch, some U.S. Mosques have been vandalized, and one even shot at, since the attacks in Paris. Loretta also said that American Muslims have been on the receiving end of threats of violence.
Attorney General Lynch sat by President Obama’s side, along with FBI Director James Comey, Vice President Biden, and others, as Obama made some statements regarding the San Bernardino shootings. The president said that authorities had yet to determine the motives behind the shootings, and wouldn’t confirm that they were “terrorist-related.”
“Our expectation is, is that this may take some time before we’re able to sort it all through… It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know. It’s also possible that this was workplace-related.”
Obama’s statements instantly fueled negative reactions, with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee seemingly incredulous about Obama’s failure to call the “slaughter” an Islamic terrorist attack, particularly in an effort that Huckabee believes is a “pro-Islam public relations campaign.”
“It doesn’t take a Harvard law degree to identify the inspiration and source of the San Bernardino slaughter: radical Islamic terrorism. Concealing the truth and ignoring the obvious for the simple sake of a pro-Islam public relations campaign is an insult to the American people.”
Donald Trump also weighed in on Obama’s statement regarding the San Bernardino shootings, Trump’s reflections on the matter are likely ones that Attorney General Loretta Lynch would frown upon.
“Take a look. I mean, you look at the names, you look at what’s happened. You tell me,” said Trump.
[Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, and Video via YouTube]
