Marine Vet’s Tweet to Trump Goes Viral

A Marine veteran took to social media to fire back at Donald Trump’s call for American Muslims to be registered in a national database.

Marine Sgt. Tayyib Rashid’s comeback has gone viral. Rashid, whose Twitter handle is @MuslimMarine, tweeted Trump a photo 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, the son of a Muslim missionary and theologian, served from 1997 to 2002 as an aircraft electronic countermeasures technician with 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, according to Marine Corps officials.

On November 19^th, Trump said that he “would certainly implement” databases or increase surveillance for Muslims living in the U.S.

Rashid’s post has over 39,000 retweets and 51,000 likes. It has also prompted a barrage of follow-on social media posts under the hashtag #MuslimID from other U.S. troops, police officers, lawyers, medical professionals and students who identify as Muslim.

“I got borderline angry that [Trump] 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,” said Rashid. “I felt the need to call him out — particularly because Trump himself has never served.”

Rashid, now 38, said that he became a Marine because he “wanted to be part of a brotherhood of men dedicated to the service of our country.”

He said that he is a proud American Muslim.

“For me there is no conflict between the two identities,” he said.

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