Imagine being a Somali refugee who happens to be a Muslim living in the St. Cloud area (or anywhere else), working hard to make a living, struggling to learn a new language, trying to adjust to the ways of a new culture in this great nation.
And then imagine turning on the TV and seeing a flamboyant billionaire and presidential wannabe suggesting the United States should ban the entry of Muslims into this country. Worse than that, imagine how insecure those immigrants feel when they learn about a third of Americans agree with the billionaire’s bluster. In last week’s polls, 57 percent of Americans disagree with Donald Trump’s broadside against Muslims. It’s a pity that number of Americans who disagree is not 100 percent. Every American should speak out – shout out! – against Trump’s unfair aspersions against Muslims, and here are the reasons why:
- A very tiny percentage of so-called Muslims are of the terrorist persuasion. I say so-called Muslims because terrorists are not interested in Islam other than using a sick and twisted version of that religion to commit acts of barbarism, wreak havoc and gain territorial power. They’re about as “religious” as gnats.
- Trump is casting a net of suspicion on a religion and its adherents. It’s worrisome because that is how Nazis began their murderous campaigns against Jews in Europe. That reign of terror started with deftly planted suspicions against Judaism and Jews, who began to be viewed as the “other,” the not-to-be-trusted, the trouble-makers, the wreckers of “Aryan” civilization. Jews were made to wear the Star of David, they were isolated into ghettos, their businesses were confiscated, they were vilified in vicious propaganda films. Their synagogues were trashed and burned; Jews or anyone mistaken for a Jew were beaten and abused in the streets. Fellow citizens did not speak out; they played deaf, dumb, blind. Then the deportations began, and we all know – or should know – what happened next.
- I am not at all comparing Trump to Hitler. However, Trump’s sowing the seeds of suspicion in this fearful time can lead to inhuman consequences, at the very least making even the American Muslims who have long been outstanding American citizens feel insecure and under fire. Trump’s comments can also energize radical groups like white supremacists by letting them think their hateful rhetoric and tactics have a newfound “legitimacy,” coming from the mouth of a presidential candidate. Immediately after Trump’s anti-Muslim talk, Internet interest in those toxic organizations surged, according to some news reports.
- Trump’s comments are antithetical to everything we cherish as quintessentially American, most specifically the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution, with the equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not to mention the right to practice the religion of one’s choice.
- Placing Muslims under suspicion for the vicious acts of ISIS is as misguided as being leery of all Christians just because some homegrown lunatics, some of whom professed to be Christians, committed the many mass-shootings in this country.
- Trump knows perfectly well a ban on all Muslims to the United States is a fool’s wish because it’s constitutionally problematic to say the least, not to mention virtually impossible to implement. To legitimize his no-Muslims stand, Trump refers to “precedents” that include policies initiated during World War II when Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps and to other severe abridgements of rights for minorities in times of national crisis. Instead of lauding previous policies as precedents, Trump should be condemning them for the cruel abuses of human rights they were.
- Many planned terrorist attacks have been nipped in the bud, thanks to good intelligence gathering, and many of the “tips” have come from Muslims who deplore terrorist violence as much as all good people do. Muslims, in fact, have been the main targets of violence by thug psychopaths known as ISIS. To cast suspicion on the millions of good, peaceful, law-abiding Muslims because of ISIS terror is doubly cruel, like blaming victims for their own suffering. Alienating Muslims by treating them as “suspects” is likely to make them disaffected, especially young ones who may begin to feel – oh how wrongly! – that ISIS is looking out for their well-being. Thus, more recruitments of gullible, foolish people to the “cause,” which is no cause at all but rather a hideous cult of death. What a bleak irony ISIS is cheering Trump’s proposals.
- Trump claims his proposal for barring of Muslims from entry into America would be temporary, that there would be some exceptions. In all fairness, Trump is not a racist or a bigot, and he would never intend to bring harm to innocent people. On the bright side, he has made us aware of the importance of securing our borders and of scrupulously scrutinizing the documentation of anyone who enters the United States. Yes, Trump has some good ideas, too, and he is, most probably, a “nice guy,” as he often says of others. However, as a nice guy, he should realize once and for all his sweeping “solutions” to national problems, including the barring of Muslims, are not only hurtful, inflammatory and potentially dangerous, but they threaten America’s status as a free nation that strives to accommodate good people seeking to make a decent life free from shadows of suspicion, discrimination and violence.
