The debate over banning of Muslims and what was projected as a unanimous support for Hindus from Trump saw a heated exchange after the Republican Hindu Coalitions rally in Edison, New Jersey.
Protestors of Indian origin held signs which said “South Asians Dump Trump” and accused supporters of labeling all Hindus in the USA as Trump supporters.
Here’s how the exchange went, in which at one point, the din of the supporters drowned the voices of the protestors.
Protestors: Are you saying it’s Hindu culture to support trump?
Are you supporting a rapist?
Trump supporter: No I’m not saying it’s not. I’m saying India isn’t supporting Trump. Hillary will take the side of Muslims. It’s life or death. That’s what it is. It’s Trump or Muslims.
Protestors: You support rape culture!
Trump Supporter: You support Muslims, so so do you. You support murder and homicide. You defend Muslims. Do not talk about rape culture. You defend it. You have a rape culture. I’ll eat whatever meat. That’s you and your law. You and your law and factions defend rape. You throw your fake, manufactured race in our faces. So you can defend Muslims. You come here with your fake race. Nobody even listens to you.
Protestors: Wow!
(Another Trump supporter interrupts) You are not Hindu! You are supporting rape.
Trump Supporter: If you support Muslims, you support rape culture, you have no moral high ground to speak about anything. Do not tell us supporting rape culture. You come here to denigrate the only good race. Where are the gay, transvestite, female, black god? Kali is black. This is not something your fake race can understand.
This comes a day after a fund-raising event on Saturday in New Jersey organised by the Hindu Republican Coalition.
Trump said: “I am a big fan of Hindu, and I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan.” (Hindu is the name of the religion, while those who follow it are Hindus.)
Earlier, in an interview with NDTV, Trump appeared to suggest he was not aware that India also had large Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist populations.
It’s notable that the support is far from unanimous. According to the Huffington Post, only 9% Indian Americans said they'd vote Trump. In the primaries, only 7% Indian Americans surveyed said they voted Trump. Hillary Clinton was reported to have won 60% of their votes, and Bernie Sanders another 23%.
On favourability, 67% Indians gave Trump a very unfavourable rating, and another 12% ticked the somewhat unfavourable option.
For Hillary, 70% Indian Americans found her to be very or somewhat favourable, only slightly less than the 77% favourable rating they gave Barack Obama.
No other Asian community opposes Trump's idea of banning the Muslim community into the US as much as Indians.
Only 11% Indians supported the idea, and 78% opposed it. Over all, 62% of those surveyed opposed the idea.
The largest support for banning Muslims came from Cambodians (37%) and Vietnamese (31%) Americans.