President Donald Trump’s growing “dehumanizing” rhetoric toward Muslims, amid his escalating genocidal threats against Iran, is intentional, according to experts in Islamic studies and Muslim community advocacy.

On Easter Sunday, the president took to his Truth Social platform to unleash an expletive-laden, unhinged threat to attack Iran — attacks that would be considered war crimes under international law — to demand the government reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” he wrote.

“Praise be to Allah,” the president added, before signing his name.

Trump received swift backlash for his crazed threat across the political spectrum, and he was also accused of mocking Muslims by ending his threat to Iran with the phrase, “Praise be to Allah.”

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the president’s post “deranged” and “reckless” in a statement on Sunday.

“President Trump’s deranged mocking of Islam and his threats to attack civilian infrastructure in Iran are reckless, dangerous, and indicative of a mindset that shows indifference to human life and contempt for religious beliefs,” the statement read.

“These statements are not made in a vacuum. They follow a long pattern of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have dehumanized Muslims at home and abroad,” the statement continued. “The casual use of ‘Praise be to Allah’ in the context of violent threats reflects a disturbing willingness to weaponize religious language while simultaneously denigrating Islam and its followers.”

Iman Awad, the national director of policy and advocacy of Emgage, a Muslim American advocacy group that aims to educate and mobilize Muslim American voters, told HuffPost on Monday that what was most concerning about Trump’s Easter Sunday post was “not just the immediate threat of escalation with Iran,” but that it included “threats that could amount to war crimes.”

She called Trump’s post “reckless” and “inflammatory.”

“[It] builds on years of rhetoric that has normalized violence against Muslim communities, both abroad and here at home, dehumanizing Muslims and framed entire populations as threats,” she said.

Awad warned that posts like Trump’s Sunday message have “real consequences.”

“When threats of extreme violence are framed as policy, it lowers the bar for what is considered acceptable in both U.S. foreign policy and public discourse at home,” she said.

Since then, Trump escalated his threats on Tuesday morning, saying that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if his 8 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline given to Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is ignored.

Ibrahim N. Abusharif, associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, said there were three things revealed in Trump’s Easter Sunday post: “A profanity-laced bombing threat, the mockery of a sacred religious tradition, and the choice of Easter morning as the stage.”

“The vulgarity isn’t incidental, but it is a distraction,” he told HuffPost. “Open threats to destroy power plants and bridges are shameless pre-confessions of war crimes. The embarrassing audacity shows more panic than statecraft.”

“Trump praising ‘Allah’ is a bizarre and unintended boast of presidential ignorance,” he continued. “It is ultimately the product of the otherizing of Islam, specifically mocking the word ‘Allah’ the Arabic word for God.”

Abusharif emphasized that Trump’s mockery ignored a “striking historical fact.”

“Jesus never uttered the word ‘God,’” he argued. “He called upon God in his native Aramaic with the word alaha.”

“The resemblance is not coincidental but shows how sister Semitic languages call upon God,” Abusharif continued. “Again, the ignorance is staggering.”

Awad said that Trump’s use of “Praise be to Allah” in his Easter post sent a message.

“Donald Trump used a sacred phrase from Islamic worship at the end of a profanity-laced threat to bomb Iran. That contrast is what makes it so offensive,” she said. “Putting a deeply meaningful religious phrase next to violent language aimed at a Muslim-majority country isn’t respectful, it turns that phrase into a tool for provocation.”

She said that Trump’s use of “praise be to Allah” sends the message that “Islamic religious expression is being used for shock value, rather than treated with the dignity and respect it deserves.”

“The problem isn’t just the words. It’s that they carry the weight of policy because real people will pay the price,” she said, adding that Trump made “a deliberate choice to provoke,” knowing the post will go viral and generate outrage.

“But regardless of intent, the impact is the same. A sacred expression is made profane, and Muslim identity is reduced to a prop for political messaging,” she said.

Awad had warned on Monday — prior to Trump’s latest escalating threat against Iran the following day — that not calling attention to Trump’s posts and “inflammatory messages” could lead to normalization.

“When this kind of rhetoric goes unchallenged, it lowers the standard for what is acceptable from public officials and gradually shifts what people are willing to tolerate,” she said.

“Religious language should not be used as a weapon, and Muslim communities deserve the same respect and protection as any other faith,” she added.

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