I have no idea why Bernie Sander's campaign promoted Tulsi Gabbard as a possible VP candidate. She is a heterodox Hindu (her dad converted) from Hawaii, who uses her status as a veteran to promote the ugliest of Islamophobia policies.
Her
actual foreign policy for the Middle East (and I kid you not) is to promote Sunni Shia civil war in every country to eventually defeat Islam. She is admirably very persistent in this endeavor.
Tulsi Gabbard is a puppet of the Indian lobby in the US, she has launched many anti-Pakistan legislation and was instrumental in normalizing Modi in the US.
She also rode the Bernie wave and betrayed them to get close to Trump and the Alt-right fascists. She is a hero to them.
Her prejudice against Islam directly flows from her Hindu fundamentalism. Gabbard has become one of the main U.S. political advocates of Narendra Modi, leader of the Hindu sectarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the current prime minister of India.
While chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, Modi helped ignite a pogrom against Muslims that killed hundreds and displaced more than 200,000 in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Since his national victory in the 2014 election, Modi has implemented a Hindu fundamentalist program to deflect blame for his neoliberal assault onto Muslim scapegoats.
At Modi's invitation, Gabbard toured India for three weeks, during which various Hindu fundamentalists welcomed her as their American champion. In perhaps the foulest episode of the tour, the India Foundation, a formation aligned with the Hindu fascist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), hosted Gabbard for a discussion on the future of India-American relations. After the reactionary lovefest, India's Telegraph newspaper dubbed her"Sangh's American Mascot"
Back in the U.S. Gabbard defended Modi against any and all criticism. She was one of the few Democrats who spoke against the federal government's decision to deny Modi a visa in 2014 because of his suppression of religious freedom.
A year earlier, she waged a successful campaign to scuttle legislation calling on India to improve its treatment of religious minorities. Gabbard denounced the bill as an attempt "to influence the outcome of India's national elections."
Once Modi was elected, Gabbard threw herself into advocating for him to visit the U.S. When Obama capitulated and granted his Modi's request, Gabbard helped organize his tour, culminating in his address before Congress.
Overjoyed at Gabbard's loyal service, the Overseas Friends of BJP invited her as a featured speaker at their conference in Atlanta. She proudly wore a sash emblazoned with the BJP logo. In turn, BJP supporters showered her with campaign contributions.
https://socialistworker.org/2016/12/08/an-islamophobic-progressive
