Islamophobia In Donald Trump White House? Breitbart’s Sebastian Gorka Has Called US A ‘Christian Nation,’ Urges Muslim Surveillance

The number of former employees of alt-right website Breitbart in President Donald Trump’s administration is set to increase yet further. Sebastian Gorka, the national security editor at Breitbart, will be named in Trump’s National Security Council, according to a report Tuesday from Business Insider.

Gorka will follow in the footsteps of former Breitbart Executive Chairman Stephen Bannon, now the chief strategist, and former staff writer Julia Hahn, who it was reported Sunday would become a special assistant to the president.

Contrasting with Trump’s message that he will be a president for all Americans, Gorka has previously called the United States a “Christian nation.” The comments prompt questions as to whether Trump’s administration will truly be one for all Americans. Both for Breitbart and in his role as a regular Fox News contributor, Gorka has also consistently rallied against the threat of Islam.

Gorka was paid $8,000 by Trump for “policy consulting” in 2015 during the early stages of his campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings first reported by Buzzfeed. Like Trump, Gorka has warned of the threat from Muslim refugees, particularly those arriving from Syria.

“We don't know where the refugees from war zones are living in America?” he told Fox News in July 2016. “We're a Christian nation, we should be charitable to those in need. But charity is not an excuse for suicide.”

In a familiar refrain, he also said in the same interview that “the war is real and the enemy is here.”

It is not just refugees Gorka has called for monitoring of. Gorka, who was born in Britain and was a founding member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs, has also mirrored Trump’s call for surveillance of mosques. In 2014, he opposed the New York City Police Department’s decision to disband its Muslim surveillance program. In 2011, the department was found to have violated the constitution in its infiltration of mosques and other predominantly Muslim areas.

“What was Osama bin Laden? Muslim. What is Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda today? Muslim. Major Nidal Hasan, the only executor of a mass-casualty attack after 9/11 – the Fort Hood shooting – he was also a Muslim, or said he was,” Gorka told Al Jazeera in 2014, falsely claiming that there have not been other mass-casualty attacks since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Do we think these individuals hang out in Hindu ashrams or Catholic community centers? No, they hang out in mosques.”

Responding to an attack on an Orlando nightclub last June which killed 49 people, Gorka claimed that then-President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were in part responsible.

“This attack in part was facilitated by the policies of this administration, President Obama and Secretary Clinton, that have allowed political correctness into the threat assessment,” he told Fox News.

However, Gorka may also come into conflict with Trump. He has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “thuggish bully.” And, notably, given the Trump’s administration false claims about the size of the crowd at his inauguration Friday, Gorka has also previously accused Obama of manufacturing truth.

“In George Orwell’s landmark novel 1984, Big Brother’s dictatorial state uses 'newspeak' and its Ministry of Truth to turn falsehood into manufactured 'truth' and reality into lies,” he wrote in 2015. “The administration’s explanation of what drives the terrorists responsible for 9/11, the Fort Hood shooting, and the Boston bombing sounds everyday more and more like a product of The Ministry of Truth.”