MSNBC Guest Claims Muslim Children Have Been Executed in the United States

SARSOUR: “If we want to uphold our values and we want to show the rest of the world how wonderful we are, well, we need to start here at home. While we’re talking about partnering with Muslim communities and you are a partner and you are part of the fabric of our society, our government operates massive surveillance program, unwarranted surveillance in Muslim communities, chilling free speech, making people feel afraid. I mean, a lot of Muslims have come to the United States to get away from regimes where they feel like their freedom of speech is infringed on, where some people don’t have freedom of religion.

We come to the U.S., twenty two states with anti-Sharia bills trying to ban us from practicing our faith, mosque oppositions, we’re fighting, you know, zoning boards across the country, our kids are hearing this rhetoric, we have people -- mosques being vandalized, kids being executed, Islamophobia, leaders on national television saying that, you know, holy wars and these people want to take over America. I mean, it’s just, it doesn’t, for me, reflect what we do stand for as a country and the minority in our country who are the loudest voices are reflecting what we are, and that’s not who we are as a country.

I’m an American, I’m a Muslim — should I cut myself in half? What side am I on? I’m born in Brooklyn, I can’t take that away and no one can take that away from me, I can’t be deported anywhere. So it’s just a really hard conversation to have with young people, especially young Muslims, who don’t know what side they’re supposed to be on. I’m on the American side. I’m on the right side, I’m on the side of justice. That’s the only sides that I’m on.”