Muslim-Americans have repeatedly helped prevent attacks, FBI says

Donald Trump has claimed on multiple occasions that Muslim-Americans do not report extremists in their communities, a statement the FBI is now saying is entirely false. In fact, Muslims have repeatedly prevented possible attacks by informing on suspicious and possibly radicalized individuals.

"They do not want people committing violence, either in their community or in the name of their faith, and so some of our most productive relationships are with people who see things and tell us things who happen to be Muslim," FBI director James Comey told Reuters. He emphasized that "it's at the heart of the FBI's effectiveness to have good relationships with these folks."

Others in the field have backed up Comey's claim, with deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Michael Downing saying he has personally been contracted by Muslims about "very specific things." Professor Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who is an expert in Muslim-Americans and terrorism, agreed, saying "to claim there is no cooperation is false and defamatory."

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Trust is still an issue, certainly — one imam in a study confessed he didn't believe U.S. government officials reciprocated it. However, Trump's statement that "they don't report them" appears to be routinely found false. Reuters even confirmed by reviewing court records that Muslim-Americans will report instances of possible radicalization within their own families.