Thread: I am a Muslim. But Trump’s views appall me because I am an American.

I am a Muslim. But Trump’s views appall me because I am an American.

By Fareed Zakaria Opinion writer December 10 at 6:40 PM

I think of myself first and foremost as an American. I’m proud of that identity because as an immigrant, it came to me through deep conviction and hard work, not the accident of birth. I also think of myself as a husband, father, guy from India, journalist, New Yorker and (on my good days) an intellectual. But in today’s political climate, I must embrace another identity. I am a Muslim.

I am not a practicing Muslim. The last time I was in a mosque, except as a tourist, was decades ago. My wife is Christian, and we have not raised our children as Muslims. My views on faith are complicated — somewhere between deism and agnosticism. I am completely secular in my outlook. But as I watch the way in which Republican candidates are dividing Americans, I realize that it’s important to acknowledge the religion into which I was born.

And yet, that identity doesn’t fully represent me or my views. I am appalled by Donald Trump’s bigotry and demagoguery not because I am a Muslim but because I am an American.

In his diaries from the 1930s, Victor Klemperer describes how he, a secular, thoroughly assimilated German Jew, despised Hitler. But he tried to convince people that he did so as a German; that it was his German identity that made him see Nazism as a travesty. In the end, alas, he was seen solely as a Jew.

This is the real danger of Trump’s rhetoric: It forces people who want to assimilate, who see themselves as having multiple identities, into a single box. The effects of his rhetoric have already poisoned the atmosphere. Muslim Americans are more fearful and will isolate themselves more. The broader community will know them less and trust them less. A downward spiral of segregation will set in.

Condemnation came quickly to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

The tragedy is that, unlike in Europe, Muslims in the United States are by and large well-assimilated. I remember talking to a Moroccan immigrant in Norway last year who had a brother in New York. I asked him how their experiences differed. He said, “Over here, I’ll always be a Muslim, or a Moroccan, but my brother is already an American.”

In an essay in Foreign Affairs, British writer Kenan Malik points out that in France, in the 1960s and ’70s, immigrants from North Africa were not seen as or called Muslims. They were described as North Africans or Arabs. But that changed in recent decades. He quotes a filmmaker who says, “What, in today’s France, unites the pious Algerian retired worker, the atheist French-Mauritanian director that I am, the Fulani Sufi bank employee from Mantes-la-Jolie, the social worker from Burgundy who has converted to Islam, and the agnostic male nurse who has never set foot in his grandparents’ home in Oujda?” His answer: “We live within a society which thinks of us as Muslims.”

Once you start labeling an entire people by characteristics such as race and religion, and then see the whole group as suspect, tensions will build. In a poignant article on Muslim American soldiers, The Post interviewed Marine Gunnery Sgt. Emir Hadzic, a refugee from Bosnia, who explained how the brutal civil war between religious communities began in the Balkans in the 1990s. “That’s what’s scary with [the] things that [Donald Trump is] saying,” Hadzic said. “I know how things work when you start whipping up mistrust between your neighbors and friends . . . I’ve seen them turn on each other.”

I remain an optimist. Trump has taken the country by surprise. People don’t quite know how to respond to the vague, unworkable proposals (“We have to do something!”), the phony statistics, the dark insinuations of conspiracies (“There’s something we don’t know,” he says, about President Obama) and the naked appeals to peoples’ prejudices.

But this is not the 1930s. People from all sides of the spectrum are condemning Trump — though there are several Trump-Lites among the Republican candidates. The country will not stay terrified. Even after San Bernardino, the number of Americans killed by Islamist terrorists on U.S. soil in the 14 years since 9/11 is 45 — an average of about three people a year. The number killed in gun homicides this year alone will be about 11,000.

In the end, the United States will reject this fear-mongering and demagoguery, as it has in the past. But we are going through an important test of political and moral character. I hope decades from now, people will look back and ask, “What did you do when Donald Trump proposed religious tests in America?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...198_story.html

Another liberal rag with a propaganda story.

Straight from the liberal billionaire (Bezos of Amazon) communist Post! WashPo sucks and lies all the time.

W

But this is not the 1930s. People from all sides of the spectrum are condemning Trump — though there are several Trump-Lites among the Republican candidates. The country will not stay terrified. Even after San Bernardino, the number of Americans killed by Islamist terrorists on U.S. soil in the 14 years since 9/11 is 45 — an average of about three people a year. The number killed in gun homicides this year alone will be about 11,000.

This man needs to be fired immediately by CNN.

This man is not an American. He's a naturalized citizen originally admitted on a student visa to attend Yale University (how nice for him) and then obtain his Ph.D from Harvard (how even nicer for him), he planted his feet here after graduating with degrees from both Harvard and Yale, to implant himself in our society, so when the time came and the opportunities presented themselves, he could promote and defend his Muslimism, a personal religious/political choice, diminish the consequences of Muslim terrorism, discount the terror, crudely dismiss and boldly sell wanton disregard for the lives of Americans lost to Radical Muslim Terrorism.

I think of myself first and foremost as an American. I’m proud of that identity because as an immigrant, it came to me through deep conviction and hard work, not the accident of birth. I also think of myself as a husband, father, guy from India, journalist, New Yorker and (on my good days) an intellectual. But in today’s political climate, I must embrace another identity. I am a Muslim.

That is laughable. You didn't become an American through deep conviction and hard work, you became an American because you had the political clout from your well-positioned Indian parents to buy the label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareed_Zakaria

Honestly, CNN, where do you dig these people up? You think degrees from Yale and Harvard make them qualified to exploit your network to build a bully-pulpit for a group of people who have caused more carnage, death, turmoil and threats of world war since WWII?

Really??!!

And Washington Post, SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU!! How dare you offer up your newspaper for an article like this? Have you already forgotten the Pentagon on 9/11? Oh well, why not forget, there were only 125 Americans killed at the Pentagon on 9/11.

Shame on you. Hire some Real Americans to work for your companies, why don't you?

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Straight from the liberal billionaire (Bezos of Amazon) communist Post! WashPo sucks and lies all the time.

W

William, look at this:

Zakaria's books include The Future of Freedom and The Post-American World. The Future of Freedom argues that what is defined as democracy in the Western world is actually "liberal democracy", a combination of constitutional liberalism and participatory politics. Zakaria points out that protection of liberty and the rule of law actually preceded popular elections by centuries in Western Europe, and that when countries only adopt elections without the protection of liberty, they create "illiberal democracy". The Post-American World, published in 2008 before the financial crisis, argued that the most important trend of modern times is the "rise of the rest," the economic emergence of China, India, Brazil, and other countries.[16]

From 2006, Zakaria has also criticized what he views as "fear-based" American policies employed not only in combating terrorism, but also in enforcing immigration and drug smuggling laws, and has argued in favor of decriminalization of drugs and citizenship for presently illegal immigrants to the United States of all backgrounds.[17][18][19] Referring to his views on Iran, Leon Wieseltier described Zakaria as a "consummate spokesman for the shibboleths of the White House and for the smooth new worldliness, the at-the-highest-levels impatience with democracy and human rights as central objectives of our foreign policy, that now characterize advanced liberal thinking about America's role in the world."[20]

Before the 2008 US Presidential election, Zakaria endorsed Barack Obama on his CNN program.[21] In May 2011 The New York Times reported that President Obama has "sounded out prominent journalists like Fareed Zakaria ... and Thomas L. Friedman" concerning Middle East issues.[22]

After the 9/11 attacks, in a Newsweek cover essay, "Why They Hate Us," Zakaria argued that Islamic extremism was not fundamentally rooted in Islam, nor could it be claimed a reaction to American foreign policy. He located the problem in the political/social/economic stagnation of Arab societies, which then bred an extreme, religious opposition. He portrayed Osama bin Laden as one in a long line of extremists who used religion to justify mass murder. Zakaria argued for an inter-generational effort to create more open and dynamic societies in Arab countries, and thereby helping Islam enter the modern world.[23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareed_Zakaria

"Post-American World"? He writes a book titled the "Post-American World"? What does he think he knows that we don't?!!

While I agree with him on the decriminalization of the drug trade, because I actually support a domestic legalization which I'm sure is based on completely different goals and outcomes than he wants, but he's an Amnesty Supporter for Illegal Aliens.

He writes in another book, the "Future of Freedom" that freedom depends on the "rising up" of other countries like India (his homeland), China, Brazil and so forth? Really??

He dismisses Muslimism as the reason for Muslim Terrorism and blames it on economics. Right, those poor Saudis and Osama bin Laden didn't have enough oil money to live on. No, he does this because he's Muslim and his father was both an Islamic Cleric and famous Islamic Scholar, as well as a big Indian politician serving in the Indian Congress, representing India at the UN, and also serving as a Prosecutor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafiq_Zakaria

And of course, it's no surprise Fareed is a Big Obama Man, a Democrat and as Anti-Trump as one can get.

So no, he is not an American. He's a Muslim immigrant from India, planted in the United States to promote globalism and defend Muslimism. This has to end.

He has his own show on CNN, Global Public Square:

http://www.cnn.com/shows/fareed-zakaria-gps

I knew about him because I've suffered through watching his show several times, which always makes me ill, because it's always against almost everything most of us believe, think, and know to be true. So I've been on to him for awhile.

Talk radio and all the conservative mediums need to get on this right away. See what else they can find out about him and let America know that he doesn't think victims of Radical Muslim Terrorism matter because their numbers are less than those from gun violence.

In fact, Trump and all Trump Supporters need to get on this. Trump needs to read Zakaaris statement at all his rallies and drive this issue over home plate.