It is highly unlikely that billionaire Donald Trump, the Republican candidate will ever make to the White House in 2017. Extreme right-wing parties and ideologues play a major role in encouraging opposition to Islam. These parties use Islamophobic speech to gather votes and grow strong on the back of it.
Trump has been one of the most controversial and divisive GOP candidates. He started his Presidential race by a call to tear down mosques. In a recent interview by Anderson Cooper, aired on CNN Donald Trump, stated, ‘Islam hates us”. Trump also made headlines in December 2015 when he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. although there was a widespread condemnation of his remarks; Trump has stood by the proposal. The very next day, another Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio attacked Donald Trump for saying that Islam "hates the US", in a televised debate in Miami. Rubio has a softer stand against Muslims, claiming that Islam had a problem with radicalization but many Muslims are proud Americans. He further stressed that, "Presidents can't just say whatever they want. It has consequences," Rubio, Cruz and Kasich said the United States needs to maintain good relations with Muslim countries in the Middle East to help in the fight against Islamic State militants. Rubio also said, "We are going to have to work with people in the Muslim faith even as Islam faces a serious crisis within it.” Rubio also defended American Muslims as patriots. "If you go anywhere in the world you're going see American men and women serving us in uniform that are Muslims”. Donald Trump has to be reminded that ‘politics of fear and schism’ does not win Presidential races.
Islamophobia gained momentum in the 21st century. We saw a gradual rise in global terrorism and exponential increase in anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism in general which gave birth to right wing extremism in America and Europe. The politicians, political commentators, religious Christian leaders have equated mainstream Islam with terrorism, which lead to an increase in discrimination against Islam and Muslims. Let us not forget that several key scholars and politicians have expressed similar views: the Evangelist scholar, Franklin Graham called Islam as an ‘evil religion ‘and Samuel Huntington, Harvard professor and author of ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, wrote ‘Islam has bloody borders-----and innards’. Such mindsets have a created new template for hate against Muslims under the name of “ Islamophobia”
There are several books, which have been published on the topic ‘Islamophobia’, by acclaimed academics in the West. The Indian-born Deepa Kumar, an Associate Prof at Rutgers and author of ‘Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire’ has long been debunking western lies about Islam, Muslims and Arabs, through books, articles and lectures, which have earned her the wrath of the Zionist mafia. She visited Edmonton in June 2012 to give her perspective to the Canadian audience. The Islamophobia Industry authored by Nathan Lean, reflects the rising tide of anti-Muslim feeling sweeping through the United States and Europe. Lean takes readers inside the minds of the manufacturers of Islamophobia – a highly-organized enterprise of pro-Israel bloggers, right-wing talk show hosts, evangelical religious leaders, and politicians, united in their quest to exhume the ghosts of 9/11 and convince their compatriots that Islam is the enemy. Lean uncovers their scare tactics, reveals their motives, and exposes the ideologies that drive their propaganda machine.
After 9/11, according to Pew Research center report analysis, more than 50% Muslims feel
* That they are singled out for extra surveillance.
* Less respected than other religious groups
* Victims of social alienation
* More pessimistic than other communities about the future of their communities
There was a huge lack of political engagement and political presence before 9/11 but it is changing and the presence of American Muslims in US politics is increasing. Muslims now serve in the Congress.
Among the Muslims 38% claim to be moderate, 29% are liberal or very liberal and 25% are conservatives.
The Muslims in US have key credentials which refutes the misconception:
- Education is a priority for many Muslims, who, after Jews, are the most educated religious community surveyed in the United States
- College Degree or more among American Muslims--------- 40% versus to 29% of Americans overall.
- Non-working Muslims----- 31% full time students versus 10% in general population
- Jobs and Financial Status: 70% have jobs compared to 64% overall Americans
Will Trump tell the Muslims serving in Congress, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, that they hate America? Will he say that to the thousands of Muslims serving as police officers, paramedics, judges, schoolteachers, and others in professions designed to help the people of this nation? Trump has stirred up hate against Latinos, implying that they were coming to rape your wives and daughters. In October 2015, another Republican candidate Ben Carson stated that no Muslim should be president of the United States, and he got a big boost in the polls. Republicans are thriving on hate to galvanize white supremacists and evangelist voters. The American nation has to consider the words of Eva Schloss, an Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of legendary Anne Frank, who warned in January 2016, that Trump “is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism.”
Stereotypes are known to be social constructions that serve the interests of those who create and promote them. As such it is important to know why a particular stereotype was created, by whom and for what purpose? Muslims in North America have been increasingly subjected to such negative stereotyping since 9/11 when the powerful US administration decided to wage its ill-conceived global war on terror. This global war was launched with President George W. Bush declaring famously that “you’re either with us or against us,” thus pre-empting any rational assessment of its objectives and consequences. Today, a decade later and untold thousands of lives lost, mostly those of men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan who had nothing to do with 9/11, the war has produced little by way of peace or security but a lot of angry and frustrated individuals.
US President, Barack Obama while addressing thousands of attendees at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, said many Americans do not know a Muslim person and form a “hugely distorted impression” based on TV, film and negative news reports. Since 9/11, Paris and San Bernardino attacks, he continued, “You’ve seen too often people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith. Bernie Sanders’ a democrat, had an overwhelming popularity in Dearborn, Michigan, a city of around 100,000 people and home to the largest enclave of Arab-Americans in the country, who make up 40% of its population. It was here that Sanders recorded a stunning 59% victory, with Clinton lagging behind on 39%. If Muslims in Michigan can vote for a Jewish American Bernie Sanders, it is very likely that Muslims in US Presidential elections will vote against Republicans to give another term to the Democrats in November 2016.
There is only one way of overcoming all these fears; true Muslims must describe their faith with patience and moderation and explain and show that an Islam purged of all nonsense is modern, compatible with science, democracy and logic, enlightened, progressive, opposes terror and commands love, brotherhood and peace. They must explain that Muslims have no intention of doing away with Christianity and that the Koran praises Christians. They must explain that the mentality equated with terror, slaughter and suicide attacks, that is against art, science and all beauty and that is hostile to other faiths derives not from Islam, but from deluded fanatics. Muslims must therefore engage in a systematic consciousness-raising campaign, bearing in mind that misinformation is perhaps the main cause of Islamophobia, that many people who fear Islam know very little about it and that much of what they think they know is untrue.
