Jacob Bender, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, believes Trump’s formal acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the capital may stall the ongoing peace process and bring more volatility to the region.

“The final status of Jerusalem should be negotiated. You don’t make unilateral moves on such an important, crucial issue,” said Bender, a Jewish American who lived in Jerusalem for seven years.

Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, director of outreach and education for the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said Trump’s decision jeopardizes the peace process. “This makes a peace solution all the more problematic,” he said.

“The closest we’ve seen in contemporary history to anything like this was George Wallace, who ran for president in 1968 and famously used this kind of rhetoric,” Zelizer said. “But he was a third party candidate. And he didn’t win.” Trump’s public rhetoric on race, religion and immigration, he said, is almost better suited to presidents of the 19th and early 20th centuries — and amplified through social media. “These [tweets] fall squarely within that historical record of shame,” said Jacob Bender, the director of the Philly chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Local Islamic organizations are reacting strongly to the Trump administration’s response to the recent terror incident in New York City.

They believe the calls for reform are neck deep in bias.

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“It’s hard not to notice,” said Jacob Bender, executive director of CAIR Philadelphia. “There seems to be a continual double standard.”