A Marine veteran angered by has returned fire at Donald Trump’s call for American Muslims to be registered in a national database took to social media to fire back, and his comeback has received international attention.
After hearing the Republican presidential hopeful told say to NBC News on Nov. 19 that he "would certainly implement" databases or increase surveillance for Muslims living in the U.S., veteran Marine Sgt. on that," former sergeant Tayyib Rashid tweeted Trump a photo icture of his military identification card with the message: "Hey @realDonald Trump, I’m an American and I already carry a special ID badge. Where’s yours?"
Rashid's post The tweet went viral with nearly over 35,000 retweets. It also prompted and inspired a barrage of follow-on social media posts under the with the hashtag #MuslimID by from other U.S. troops, fellow American servicemen and women, police officers, lawyers, medical professionals and students who identify as Muslim.
"I got borderline angry that [Trump]he would make such a comment and try to drive a wedge between Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces and people who aren’t Muslim," Rashid told the International Business Times. "I felt the need to call him out — particularly because Trump himself has never served."
Rashid, whose Twitter handle is @MuslimMarine, served from 1997 to 2002 as an aircraft electronic countermeasures technician with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, according to Marine Corps officials.
Trump's comments to NBC followed an interview earlier that day with Yahoo News, in which he was asked whether tracking Muslims would require registering them in a database or giving them special identification noting their religion.
"We're going to have to — we're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely," Trump responded. "We're going to have to look at the mosques. We're going to have to look very, very carefully."
The Republican candidate's His comments prompted a backlash, with some across the political spectrum, drawing comparisons with the legal obligation by the Nazis requiring to register Germans who identified as Jewish to register and wear yellow stars of David.
When NBC asked Trump what the difference would be in legally requiring Muslims to do so, Trump repeatedly responded: "You tell me."
"I am a proud American Muslim and for me there is no conflict between the two identities," Rashid told the BBC that he is a proud American Muslim.
"For me there is no conflict between the two identities," he said.
