Donald Trump suffers from Islamophobia

There has not been one presidential election in recent memory to compare what the candidates for the Republican ticket have turned the 2016 presidential election into. Donald Trump alone would have been enough to make the 2016 election the weirdest in recent times by what has happened so far. He abused almost every group whose support would be necessary to win the White House. He abused women, immigrants, Hispanics, all except his narrow base of supporters on the extreme right of the Republican Party.
Most people who watched him and his campaign thought he was adding fun to the race and that his weird and abusive views would soon show him the exit gate. That did not happen. The weirder and abusive his campaign became, the stronger became his hold in the race. The fact that while the large pack in the race divided the votes amongst themselves, Donald Trump's narrow base remained loyal to him and kept him leading the pack.
Among the many senseless and abusive things he said, one that   became relevant has been America's security. Donald Trump exploited the fear prevalent in the country because of the emergence of ISIS and blamed Washington in general and President Obama in particular for the fear in which many in the country are living. He tested the grounds with anti-Muslim and anti-Islam rhetoric to start with. He identified Islam as a terrorist religion.
The Paris carnage last month came to him like an answer to his prayers as he boasted on the campaign trail about how correct he had been in accusing Islam and Muslims. Thus, he told reporters that his ratings in the polls go up when there is a terrorist attack involving Muslims. Convinced about the benefits of attacks on Islam bordering Islamophobia was attracting the support and attention of many, he did not care about facts or truth. He thus said, "thousands and thousands" of Muslims rejoiced 9/11 in Jersey City.
San Bernardino massacres encouraged him to plunge wholeheartedly into Islamophobia. His supporters did not care when the media established that Donald Trump lied with the rhetoric of "thousands and thousands" of Muslims. Far from retreating, he then said he supported closing down mosques emboldened by the fear in the country that he helped raise as much as Syed Farook and Tasfeen Malik. The San Bernardino massacres emboldened him to claim that he was correct about his recommendation for a database for the Muslims and issuing them with identity cards so they could be easily identified like what was done to the Jews by the Nazis.
As his polls ratings went up in direct proportion to his Islamophobic rhetoric, he lost his sense and said that families of ISIS should also be killed to win the war against them. He did not care that sources close to the Israeli government had pointed out that if the US were to take such action, it would be guilty of war crimes. In another of his senseless anti-Islam rhetoric, he said that the "wives" of the 9/11 terrorists were aware that their "husbands" were preparing their 9/11 attacks. The official report on 9/11 revealed that all the 9/11 terrorists were unmarried.
President Obama's rather belated address to the nation on December 06 to contain primarily Donald Trump's Islamophobic rhetoric was presidential. His address put sense in the nation that was drifting into fear and despair. He called for fighting ISIS and threats to the USA determinedly to the end but mentioned emphatically that ISIS is not Islam. He extended his hand of friendship to Muslims in the USA and overseas and asked for their assistance in a proactive manner to help overcome ISIS. Donald Trump and Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio immediately dismissed his speech as totally unacceptable. While Donald Trump dismissed it, he was unable to give any plan of his own on tackling ISIS. Senator Ted Cruz stole the show when he recommended carpet-bombing ISIS in ISIS-held territories.
Leading to the President's speech and his attempt to provide sense to post-San Bernardino USA, Donald Trump was leading substantially the pack of the Republican candidates based in recent days almost entirely on Islamophobia. His failure to match his Islamophobia rhetoric with any plan was reflected in the latest polls on the Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus. The Monmouth University Poll released on  December 06 revealed a sudden fall in Donald Trump's hold on the lead and for the first time, Ted Cruz took over the lead. The Senator held the lead with 24 per cent followed by Donald Trump at 19 per cent, Senator Marco Rubio at 17 per cent and Dr. Ben Carson with 13 per cent support.
The Iowa polls came as a shock to Donald Trump. And his response was absurd and unbelievable. In an address in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, he first demanded a total shutdown of Muslims entering the USA as immigrants or tourists. He broadened that rhetoric later and said that US citizens who are Muslims would not be allowed to return to the country. There were hints from the Trump campaign that Muslims in the USA would be sent back home! Donald Trump's latest anti-Muslim rhetoric far exceeds Islamophobia at its worst and unheard-of in modern history anywhere and brings to memory the evil committed by Hitler and the Nazis to the Jews during the Holocaust.
Donald Trump's fellow Republican candidates have instantly dismissed his absurd rhetoric that some have called "madness" although some like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have not moved away from the path in which Donald Trump led them, namely that of using Islamophobia as a strategy to win the White House. Donald Trump has no doubt shot himself in his leg by his madness and can limp along should he want to stay in the race. But the absurd extreme to which he has taken the Republican Party will undoubtedly affect whoever ultimately gets the ticket of the Party to fight in the 2016 presidential election.
The fear in the USA following first Paris and then San Bernardino massacres  is real and bipartisan in nature. But for that fear, it should not be forgotten that so far this year there have been 355 mass shootings in the USA and only two, including San Bernardino, involved Muslims. To set such a fact aside and demand that for 14 killed in San Bernardino by a Muslim couple whose ties with ISIS have not yet been satisfactorily established, the USA should close its borders to the 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, should not allow American Muslims abroad to return home and kick out the eight million American Muslims is sheer madness. In fact, to describe Donald Trump's demands as madness would be giving madness a good name.
Muslims worldwide and in the USA are sensible and know common sense will prevail over madness and bigotry. Nevertheless, at the moment they are stunned that such a surreal plot is being enacted in the presidential race of the United States.
The writer is a retired Ambassador.
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