False Views about Muslims in Elections Is a Troubling Phenomenon
By Nazli Siddiqui
San Antonio, Texas
What an election! There never was one, and we hope, there never will be another American election like campaign 2016.
Not only because this election has generated a most unsatisfying and the least intellectually stimulating political discourse, but it has also left you gaping with wonder, if what you see and hear is the setting of a new direction in American politics.
The lewdness of language, the disrespecting atmosphere, the racial discord and unsympathetic attitudes as reflective in the words and behavior of the Republican nominee Donald Trump will probably fade with his anticipated defeat. If the major political parties have learned their lesson well enough, they will go on to nominate better candidates for future elections.
It may also trigger a discussion for social norm-setting, as to what an acceptable behavior code for future American politics should be. If we are extremely lucky, the reality TV may be cautiously ushered into a cultural tone-down mode.
However, the wounds hardest to heal would be that of the hate rhetoric. Those messages will not only remain deeply embedded, but would also internalize and self-perpetuate.
Trump’s debate terminology will haunt America. Whether it is his usage of “bad hombre” which took his disdain for Mexicans to a new high, or his reference to his political opponent as “a nasty woman” leading to extenuation of self-worth in little girls, his words will mark psychological wounds which will not pass easily.
The disillusionment within the Muslim community is, whether it will be offered a chance to heal along with the integrity of the Muslim faith and lifestyle, which has been systematically and so ignorantly tarnished by Republican candidates under silent observation of their entire party.
My primary motivation of this piece is not to ameliorate the American Muslim population from the uncalled for stigmatizing process they’ve been so brutally subjected to. It is to lend clarity to issues for the benefit of all American people.
I am also not going to attempt to explain what Islam stands for. It is up to the people to educate themselves, which is not that hard in this information age. But I want to identify a few issues in unequivocal terms.
The first and foremost is, the insistence that the phenomenon of terrorism be designated as “radical Islamic terrorism” will be one of the most self-defeating thought-processes for America, if gone unchecked. This mindset will not help defeat terror. On the other hand, it will strengthen it though lending it the legitimacy of faith.
To 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, and 7.5 million American Muslims, these terror groups are heretics, their activities un-Islamic.
They are amorphous, having defined and redefined their parameters per geographic locations, national conditions, and philosophies of their leaderships, all while twisting the teachings. Their enmity is not just with the West. It is currently at its height with the peaceful Muslim majorities whom they consider a part and parcel of the civilization they want to demolish.
The second issue is the assumption that Muslims are not disclosing the conspiracies hatched around them; that they are not reporting when witnessing suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and places of worship. This propaganda is malicious and ignorant on so many levels. The perpetrators are vigilantly secretive, never mingling, or appearing to be what they are. The cited example of the neighbors of the St. Bernardino attackers is out of context, as those neighbors who saw suspicious activities weren’t Muslims. The Orlando attacker was a loner, a social loser.
The third issue is, although Trump has retracted his ludicrous ban on Muslims from entering the country, due to the dawning upon him of the unconstitutionality of his own proposal, he has succeeded in sowing seeds of hatred that will germinate, if not nipped.
Unless healed by conscious efforts of coming together through a willful dialogue, this discord will continue to plague not only the Muslims, but society as a whole.
(Nazli Siddiqui is a free-lance writer and resident of San Antonio, Texas. - San Antonio Express-News )
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