Liberal groups steel themselves to battle Trump

Groups representing minorities and immigrants are also ramping up their presence in advance of expected attacks from the Trump administration.

“We’ve seen a tremendous uptick in support and expressions of sympathy and concern from people in the larger society,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “People are really concerned. They don’t know what’s going to happen to them, their families and their children in the next four to eight years. It’s really a frightening situation.”

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CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, received more than 500 volunteer applications to their website in the two days after the election; they would normally have gotten only one or two. It is participating in conversations online and holding meetings. Hooper said he anticipates future summits of American Muslim leaders to determine how to best protect civil liberties during the Trump era.

“In the next several months, it’s going to get very serious about how you defend civil rights in the time of Trump,” Hooper said. (In his interview Sunday with “60 Minutes,” Trump said it would be “horrible” if minorities feared his presidency, but suggested that the press was exaggerating “every single little incident” of discrimination in recent days.)

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