Authorities have confirmed the suspect’s identity: it is Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old from Texas, who shortly before the terror attack published an anti-immigrant manifesto online. The text speaks of an alleged “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and details a plan to separate the United States into territories according to race, The New York Times reports.

Federal authorities have said they are considering to put the terror attack also under hate crime and gun charges, which could lead to a death penalty. El Paso District attorney, Jaime Esparza, announced he will be seeking the death penalty.

Donald Trump has described the attack as “an act of cowardice” and said that “there are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.”

The firefighters of El Paso have indicated to those who are looking for relatives and loved ones, to go personally to the Family Reunification Center at 8101 Whitus Dr. “You must be physically present, NO data is given over the phone”, they have indicated in Twitter

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has described the massacre as “one of the deadliest days in the history of Texas.”

Dayton shooting

In less than 24 hours another shooting has taken place in the United States. The second was in Dayton (Ohio) and has left 9 dead victims and several injured. The reasons are still unknown.

Police shot the attacker, who has died. He was identified as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old neighbour of the outskirts of the city. His sister Megan (22) was under the victims who lost their lifes. He also killed eight other people, six of whom where black and two others, white. Police do not believe there was a racist motive behind this attack.

There have been three shootings in only a week in the US.

La entrada 20 people killed in a terror attack by a white supremacist in El Paso se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

He took part in a panel of scholars to present a program of interreligious dialogue among lawyers worldwide called “Abrahamic Forum”. Asked by Salam Plan whether he thinks Donald Trump is “ready for dialogue with Muslims”, Destro answered:

“Yes, I do. Part of the problem is there is so little knowledge of Islam. I work with Muslim groups in the United States all the time, almost every day. And certainly, the White House understood that when they asked me to do this job, so I see no contradiction whatsoever”. The professor denied further comment.

“Part of the problem is there is so little knowledge of Islam. I work with Muslim groups in the United States all the time, almost every day. And certainly, the White House understood that when they asked me to do this job, so I see no contradiction whatsoever”

Currently, Destro is waiting the approval of Congress to be Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the post for which President Trump nominated him one month ago.

He is Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and Law professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He is specialized in freedom of religion as well as civil rights, among other topics.

“Respect requires that we first understand each other as we are not as we wish the other one should be”

The “Abrahamic Forum” in which Destro takes part, is a program, where lawyers of different faiths -mainly Christian, Muslim and Jewish- and worldwide come together to debate and understand each other. They work on specific topics, like “the care of refugees”, and meet usually twice a year to discuss their findings.

“The goal is not to reach an agreement, but trying to understand each other,” he explained in his conference. “Respect requires that we first understand each other as we are not as we wish the other one should be”. The final goal is to “prevent and punish genocide”.

“When something goes wrong, you need to be able to pick up the phone and say: ‘Ali, what is happening over there?’”

Destro also pointed out that the reason for this forum is that “when something goes wrong, you need to be able to pick up the phone and say: ‘Ali, what is happening over there?’”. So, Trump can apparently rely on that if Robert Destro’s nomination is confirmed. The decision of Congress is expected to be taken in August.

WOCMES takes place every four years in a different city. This year it has been organized in Seville by the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation and about 3,000 researchers and experts from around 91 countries have registered to take part in this academic summit which will last until Friday, the 20^th of July.

In this very Congress there was a panel held by other US experts on Wednesday where they analysed “what is really new about the Trump era for Arab and Muslim Americans”, as the panel title reads. Salam Plan was also there. You may read more about that by clicking HERE.

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La entrada Trump is ready for a dialogue with Muslims, future Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights assures se publicó primero en Salam Plan.