Everybody knows that the US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is capable of sinking into the most abominable, unimaginable depths in his venom-spitting spree. But even by those standards, his statement yesterday was a shocker. The Republican frontrunner boldly and shamelessly made a call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, comparing his plan to the World War Two detainment of Japanese-Americans and others. As expected, the statement created a global tsunami of outrage and leaders in the US and abroad reacted in disbelief. Exultant and triumphant at this achievement, Trump went one step ahead and defended his proposal. Trump being Trump, the world and its Muslims, especially American Muslims, can now wait with bated breath for the next venom of nuclear proportions from this maverick. Like what? That all Muslims in America should be expelled? Or, he will send his forces everywhere to rid the world of this ‘cancerous threat’? Or, order the closure of all embassies in the Islamic world to rescue his countrymen from the ignominy of working in a land infested with bigots? Anything is possible. At least the leaders of Muslim countries can heave a sigh of relief -- Trump has spared them, until at least, he changes his mind.
It’s easy to condemn Trump, and the outrage his outburst has created at home and abroad is understandable. It’s the American leaders who are most embarrassed at his statement. White House has condemned it in a fiery language, and Trump was disowned by his own party’s top leadership and faced calls to drop his White House bid. The Pentagon rightly said that the rabble-rouser is feeding into the Islamic State narrative that the United States is at war with the Muslim faith. His statement has also been dubbed unconstitutional and one that would disqualify him from becoming president.
But beyond this condemnation and outrage, we need to look at the layers that lie underneath his statement, Those are the layers created by the Republican Party and its fanatic fringe with their virulently anti-Muslim bias, aided and abetted by a media that has been revelling in Islamophobia, led by Fox News, and propped up by the nation’s intelligence agencies with their selective profiling of Muslims. This has created a fertile soil for Trump to flourish. If he is emboldened and shameless enough to sink into further depths, that’s because of the political dividends this bigotry will bring. He is the Republican frontrunner by a long distance, and if he wins the final race, it will be excruciatingly interesting to see an America that will bar entry to the adherents of the second largest religion in the world, whose number now exceeds a billion.
Everybody knows that the US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is capable of sinking into the most abominable, unimaginable depths in his venom-spitting spree. But even by those standards, his statement yesterday was a shocker. The Republican frontrunner boldly and shamelessly made a call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, comparing his plan to the World War Two detainment of Japanese-Americans and others. As expected, the statement created a global tsunami of outrage and leaders in the US and abroad reacted in disbelief. Exultant and triumphant at this achievement, Trump went one step ahead and defended his proposal. Trump being Trump, the world and its Muslims, especially American Muslims, can now wait with bated breath for the next venom of nuclear proportions from this maverick. Like what? That all Muslims in America should be expelled? Or, he will send his forces everywhere to rid the world of this ‘cancerous threat’? Or, order the closure of all embassies in the Islamic world to rescue his countrymen from the ignominy of working in a land infested with bigots? Anything is possible. At least the leaders of Muslim countries can heave a sigh of relief -- Trump has spared them, until at least, he changes his mind.
It’s easy to condemn Trump, and the outrage his outburst has created at home and abroad is understandable. It’s the American leaders who are most embarrassed at his statement. White House has condemned it in a fiery language, and Trump was disowned by his own party’s top leadership and faced calls to drop his White House bid. The Pentagon rightly said that the rabble-rouser is feeding into the Islamic State narrative that the United States is at war with the Muslim faith. His statement has also been dubbed unconstitutional and one that would disqualify him from becoming president.
But beyond this condemnation and outrage, we need to look at the layers that lie underneath his statement, Those are the layers created by the Republican Party and its fanatic fringe with their virulently anti-Muslim bias, aided and abetted by a media that has been revelling in Islamophobia, led by Fox News, and propped up by the nation’s intelligence agencies with their selective profiling of Muslims. This has created a fertile soil for Trump to flourish. If he is emboldened and shameless enough to sink into further depths, that’s because of the political dividends this bigotry will bring. He is the Republican frontrunner by a long distance, and if he wins the final race, it will be excruciatingly interesting to see an America that will bar entry to the adherents of the second largest religion in the world, whose number now exceeds a billion.
