Pointing to Trump, Groups Reject U.S. Aid to Fight Extremism

Source: New York Times

Pointing to Trump, Groups Reject U.S. Aid to Fight Extremism

By RON NIXON, ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZOFEB. 2, 2017

WASHINGTON — Community groups in Michigan and Minnesota have decided to reject hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal aid to fight violent extremism because of what they call the Trump administration’s vilification of Muslims.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security, under the Obama administration, awarded $10 million in grants to more than two dozen community groups and cities for programs to counter recruitment efforts by terrorist and white supremacist groups.

The group in Minnesota decided to reject the money after Trump administration officials were reported to be considering reshaping the program to target only Muslims. The effort, now known as Countering Violent Extremism, or C.V.E., would be renamed Countering Radical Islamic Extremism, Reuters reported on Thursday.

That group, Ka Joog, which works with Somali youths in Minneapolis, said in a statement that its board had decided not to take the nearly $500,000 it was awarded last month because it believed that its efforts had “been hindered by the Trump administration to instill fear, uncertainty and anti-Muslim sentiments.”

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-muslim-groups-aid-extremism.html