News

AMP Mourns Victims of Horrific Pittsburgh Shooting

(WASHINGTON, D.C. 10/27/2018)—This morning, a 46-year-old white supremacist who was reportedly armed with an “AR-15 style” rifle stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, during Sabbath and fired upon innocent men, women, and children attending religious services. AMP is deeply saddened for the victims and the Jewish community struck by this horrific act of anti-Semitism. 

We believe this yet another outcome of the Nazi-like ideology embraced, normalized, and given legitimacy by the President himself, who just this week proudly declared himself a “nationalist” shortly before a series of pipe bombs were mailed to critics of Trump by one of his violent supporters. Just as we were distraught by the president blaming the targets of the bombs for the actions of the perpetrator, we are equally disturbed by Trump’s victim-blaming today, in which he tweeted that the result would have been different if the place of worship had “armed guards,” seemingly ignoring the fact that four police officers were injured during the shooting.

Finally, it is not lost on us that the shooter attacked Tree of Life not just because he was an anti-Semite, but also because the synagogue was a partner of the Jewish group HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which was supporting efforts to bring and resettle refugees, including Muslim immigrants, in the United States. In the wake of this tragedy, AMP redoubles its commitment to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, bigotry, and xenophobia in all of its ugly forms.

[END]