WashPost Weirdly Smears Trump with Fatal Muslim College Student Beating in Wisconsin

November 1st, 2016 9:43 PM

A Muslim college student from Saudi Arabia was beaten to death in Menomonie, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Wisconsin newspapers like the nearby Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel carried the story as a senseless violent crime. But The Washington Post turned it into some sort of evidence of the damage Donald Trump’s rhetoric is doing.

Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, 24, was outside a pizza parlor just a few hours into Sunday morning when he was assaulted by a suspect whom police described as a white male, about six feet tall. So, voila, Post reporter Derek Hawkins jumped into exploiting race and religion:

Police said in a statement that they have not made any arrests or identified a motive, but they are treating the incident as a homicide.

Almost immediately, Alnahdi’s death stoked fears that the assault may have been racially motivated.

“I absolutely loved teaching the Saudi students who have come to Stout,” Genesea M. Carter, an assistant professor in the university’s English and philosophy department, wrote on Facebook. “Now I am deeply worried about my Saudi students’ safety.”

Others said they were bracing for the worst.

“If this is a hate crime, we will need to rally in peace, Menomonie,” one user wrote. “The hate that has spread through our country is so sickening,” wrote another.

The incident grabbed the attention of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which identified Alnahdi as a Muslim and tweeted that it was “monitoring his death.”

...Alnahdi’s death comes at a time when Muslims in the United States have expressed deep concern that they will be the target of hate crimes. Many advocates point to rhetoric from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has at various points called for a complete ban on Muslim immigrants. Trump shifted the proposal last month, calling instead for “extreme vetting” of people entering the country. Overall, anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen fivefold in the United States since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, as reported by The Washington Post, though much of that predated Trump’s campaign.

Even NBCNews.com --  hardly a Trump-friendly media organization -- didn't try to drag Trump into this mysterious assault.

If Alnahdi was targeted for his faith or country of origin, that is unacceptable. But it's also unacceptable for the Post to guess wildly that this is a crime caused by Donald Trump's rhetoric.