A recent tweet in Arabic from the Twitter account of U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn praise from the major Arabic-language news outlet Al-Arabiya.
The account tweeted, in English, campaign posters with the slogan "Not Me - Us" and the text "America becomes a greater nation when we stand together and say no to racism, hatred, and bigotry. #AmericaTogether" and then the same tweet in a number of languages, including Arabic.
The Al-Arabiya report contrasted the Sanders campaign's Arabic-language outreach to Republican hopeful Donald Trump's recent comments amount Muslims.
The two tweets, posted February 19, 2016.
The following are excerpts from Al-Arabiya's report on the tweet:[1]
SUPPORT OUR WORK
"In an atmosphere of polarization, the discourse of hatred, and Republican candidate Donald Trump's hostile statements toward Muslims, the Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has launched a campaign against hatred, bigotry, and violence in a number of languages, among them Arabic. [The campaign's] slogan is 'America becomes the greatest nation when we stand together against hatred, violence, and bigotry.'[2]
"In doing so, [Sanders] became the sole candidate in the presidential elections to tweet in the Arabic language, at a time when speaking in Arabic in public or on board an airplane may be sufficient to cause Americans to panic, to notify the authorities, and to fear Arab and Muslim identity.
"The liberal Jewish Democratic senator received acclaim from Arab-Americans when [his tweet] was retweeted on social media. It should be noted that the Arab-Muslim electorate is generally not taken seriously in American elections, in comparison to other minorities such as Jews, African-Americans, or those of Latin American descent.
"Whereas Senator Sanders tries to reflect the ethnic, cultural, and racial diversity of the United States, which he sees as the factor that strengthens the superpower, Trump has raised the tone of his inflammatory statements. At a campaign rally, he cited to his supporters a story about waging war on terror, saying that 'terrorists should be killed with bullets dipped in pig's blood'...
"Although the Arabic that Sanders used to translate the tweet was not precise, and some people quipped that it may have been from Google Translate, the message itself was sufficient to convey the idea..."
Endnotes:
