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The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Islamophobia: no sense of decency The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Islamophobia: no sense of decency
(about 17 hours later)
A spectre is haunting the modern world – the spectre of President Donald Trump. It should be said immediately that a Trump presidency is very far from certain. Mr Trump possesses a gold-plated private hotline to the Republican, mainly white, grassroots. But he scares plenty of other people off, not just outside but inside America, and increasingly – and not before time – even within his own party too. He remains more unlikely than likely to win the Republican presidential nomination. And even if he does win it, the formidable obstacle of Hillary Clinton probably stands across his path. But the spectre is looming all the same.A spectre is haunting the modern world – the spectre of President Donald Trump. It should be said immediately that a Trump presidency is very far from certain. Mr Trump possesses a gold-plated private hotline to the Republican, mainly white, grassroots. But he scares plenty of other people off, not just outside but inside America, and increasingly – and not before time – even within his own party too. He remains more unlikely than likely to win the Republican presidential nomination. And even if he does win it, the formidable obstacle of Hillary Clinton probably stands across his path. But the spectre is looming all the same.
Mr Trump’s announcement following the San Bernardino shootings that he wants to bar all Muslims from entering America is shocking. It is close to lynch mob politics. It is also, as it happens, almost certainly unworkable in practice. Few doubt it would be struck down as unconstitutional on grounds of religious freedom. It would have a devastating effect on American community relations (a high proportions of US Muslims are African-Americans) and on the nation’s standing. It may also be a sign that Mr Trump is getting rattled by the Republican race. Mr Trump’s announcement following the San Bernardino shootings that he wants to bar all Muslims from entering America is shocking. It is close to lynch mob politics. It is also, as it happens, almost certainly unworkable in practice. Few doubt it would be struck down as unconstitutional on grounds of religious freedom. It would have a devastating effect on American community relations (a high proportion of US Muslims are African-Americans) and on the nation’s standing. It may also be a sign that Mr Trump is getting rattled by the Republican race.
But his declaration also speaks for and to many white Americans, and that gives permission for the 2016 presidential contest to take another rightward turn. Although every situation is different, it is another reminder, along with the success of the Front National in France’s regional elections on Sunday, that the combination of global economic uncertainty, mass migration and jihadi terrorism is taking a growing toll on liberal democracies across the world.But his declaration also speaks for and to many white Americans, and that gives permission for the 2016 presidential contest to take another rightward turn. Although every situation is different, it is another reminder, along with the success of the Front National in France’s regional elections on Sunday, that the combination of global economic uncertainty, mass migration and jihadi terrorism is taking a growing toll on liberal democracies across the world.
Although the west is frequently accused of official Islamophobia, that charge is often unfair. Almost all western leaders go to enormous lengths, mostly with sincerity, to reach out to Muslims. President Obama’s Oval Office television address to the nation on Sunday is a classic example, with its insistence that fighting terror means America must “enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate”. But there are no two ways about Mr Trump’s views. He is an Islamophobe. He wishes to make Islamophobia an organising principle of state policy. For a putative leader of a nation of immigrants to talk in this way is a watershed moment for the United States. In Mr Trump’s America, the famous words associated with the Statue of Liberty would have to be amended to welcome “your tired and huddled masses – but no Muslims”.Although the west is frequently accused of official Islamophobia, that charge is often unfair. Almost all western leaders go to enormous lengths, mostly with sincerity, to reach out to Muslims. President Obama’s Oval Office television address to the nation on Sunday is a classic example, with its insistence that fighting terror means America must “enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate”. But there are no two ways about Mr Trump’s views. He is an Islamophobe. He wishes to make Islamophobia an organising principle of state policy. For a putative leader of a nation of immigrants to talk in this way is a watershed moment for the United States. In Mr Trump’s America, the famous words associated with the Statue of Liberty would have to be amended to welcome “your tired and huddled masses – but no Muslims”.
It would be unhistorical to say that this is a total breach with America’s past. The US was founded on the principle that a black person was less of a human being than a white one. It passed a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and interned Japanese Americans during the second world war. But this would be the first time that a nation founded on the principle of religious freedom would have attempted to bar people on the grounds of faith rather their nationality. That is, in a resonant word, un-American. And it demands the kind of response to Mr Trump that Joseph Welch delivered to Joe McCarthy in a famous Washington hearing in1954: have you no sense of decency, sir?It would be unhistorical to say that this is a total breach with America’s past. The US was founded on the principle that a black person was less of a human being than a white one. It passed a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and interned Japanese Americans during the second world war. But this would be the first time that a nation founded on the principle of religious freedom would have attempted to bar people on the grounds of faith rather their nationality. That is, in a resonant word, un-American. And it demands the kind of response to Mr Trump that Joseph Welch delivered to Joe McCarthy in a famous Washington hearing in1954: have you no sense of decency, sir?
European liberals sometimes caricature America as a nation of mad people who are too eager to be governed by buffoons. That is a distortion in every sense. But America can do better than this. Mr Trump’s Islamophobia is a problem for everyone, non-Muslim as well as Muslim. It puts every attempt to build trust between the west and the Muslim world – and between Muslims and non-Muslims in the west – at risk. It undermines every American – whether an aid worker, business person, diplomat, journalist or tourist – who seeks to build trust and community with those outside the US on the basis of common humanity. If Mr Trump becomes president in January 2017 there could and should be no credible cooperation with his America in either the fight against jihadi terrorism or anything else involving Europe’s credibility with the Muslim world. He would be on his own. And so would we.European liberals sometimes caricature America as a nation of mad people who are too eager to be governed by buffoons. That is a distortion in every sense. But America can do better than this. Mr Trump’s Islamophobia is a problem for everyone, non-Muslim as well as Muslim. It puts every attempt to build trust between the west and the Muslim world – and between Muslims and non-Muslims in the west – at risk. It undermines every American – whether an aid worker, business person, diplomat, journalist or tourist – who seeks to build trust and community with those outside the US on the basis of common humanity. If Mr Trump becomes president in January 2017 there could and should be no credible cooperation with his America in either the fight against jihadi terrorism or anything else involving Europe’s credibility with the Muslim world. He would be on his own. And so would we.