Islamophobic fanaticism is a serious problem in this country, particularly considering the fact so many of these racist individuals persistently impart their dangerous and incendiary values to their children. Teaching kids to hate other cultures from an early age is, after all, one of the main roots of modern prejudice.
A woman in Tempe, Arizona named Tahnee Gonzales recently uploaded several unsettling Facebook live videos in which she and her friend, identified as Elizabeth “Liz” Dauenhauer, take their kids to the Islamic Community Center of Tempe in order to vandalize the facilities and teach their children how to be “American patriots.”
The video was discovered and brought to the media’s attention by Rowaide Abdelaziz of the Huffington Post.
I found insane footage of 2 women taking their kids to vandalize & burglarize a mosque in order to be “American patriots.” The kids repeat back the vile statements they hear, calling Muslims rapists. These kids can’t be older than 12 years old. Terrifying. https://t.co/XFO1hRxxjW
— Rowaida Abdelaziz (@Rowaida_Abdel) March 15, 2018
Abdelaziz describes the disturbing footage of the moms and their three kids entering the mosque while spewing hate speech:
“They smell like goat,” exclaims a girl in the background once the group enters through the gated fence and walks around a play area at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe. Both women immediately laugh. Gonzales then tells the group and the viewers on camera that Muslims are destroying America and are “devil Satan worshippers.”
“Be careful, because Muslims are waiting to rape you,” the young girl is heard telling the boy.
The children are then seen climbing upon the mosque’s funeral van while one of the women warns one of the boys about the “dead Muslims” and “sex goats” that she says were once stored in the truck.
The women and the kids proceed to wander around the mosque, spewing Islamophobic rhetoric and disinformation, with the children obediently parroting their mothers’ hate speech. At one point, the group encounters a worshipper and Gonzalez yells at him, saying “You guys stand for evil and nothing but evil.”
“Why do they teach their children to hate?”
-Watch as self-proclaimed “patriots” bring their children along, while trespassing at an AZ mosque. A disgusting display of hatred.
via @hatehurts_
-Share it widely. pic.twitter.com/dlNtCpTp38— Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) March 15, 2018
And yes, in case there was any question, Gonzalez is a Trump supporter.
As she says in one of her videos, “You raise great patriots and you get great Americans. Raise your kid right to love your country, and we’re going to have a great country in the end, working with our president, Donald J. Trump. We’re winning 2020 again. What’s up. 2020 President Trump.”
Obviously, the video has prompted some serious concern and disgust on social media. Though the original video has been taken down, it has been uploaded and shared by other hate groups on Facebook.
“The most jarring thing about the video is clearly the fact there are children involved, indoctrinated to hate people based off their belief system or what they look like or the color they are. You can see that unfolding in real time,” Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells HuffPost. “Ironically about all of this is that the trope exists among these people that Muslims teach their children to hate. Yet they are right there on camera, telling the children just extremely inflammatory false information about this group of people that is definitely going to shape their perspectives about Muslims as they grow older. My hope for these children is that they are able to overcome the hate that is being taught to them by their parents.”
Since the video went viral, Dauenhauer has deleted her Facebook page and the Tempe Police Department is investigating the incident. Though neither of the women is charged or in custody, the police department’s media relations officer tells HuffPost that charges are likely forthcoming.
It’s disheartening to think that impressionable kids are being instilled with fanatical hate from an early age. However, Al-Akoum, the operations director and acting imam of the Islamic Community Center of Tempe, tells HuffPost that he has cautious hope for the future and the possibility that the kids in this video will eventually come to learn what it really means to be Muslim.
“My hope is that those kids will grow up and be more engaged in the community and meet some Muslims and see what they did learn is not true about Muslims.”