Monday, 18 March 2019

Trump Era: Racism and Religious Intolerance

Many US citizens voted for Trump in the previous presidential election, when for most people elsewhere the man was a joke. It was hard to believe that a globally recognized racist, sexist, rude icon of reality TV will become the President of the United States. Now he is delivering on his implicit promises; taking care of the rich and powerful while throwing everyone else under the bus.

A Muslim resident who had a valid work permit was detained by Trump’s administration; Adnan Asif Parveen, held by border patrol in Texas was only fed pork sandwiches for a week. This is not a “controversial” story about an illegal immigrant who Trump supporters would claim to be “dangerous”; this man has a valid work permit and was basically detained because of his religious belief.

His green card application was rejected after his “American” wife, Jennifer Asif went public with the story, and he was told that he might face deportation. After all, the man is a Pakistani-Spanish Muslim; not only that he believes in Islam, the man also belongs to the Hispanic minority, and in such case, Trump’s administration may kick him out of the country regardless of his legal status.


Is it a Dictatorship?

According to Britannica’s definition of the term Dictatorship, it is a form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations. The term dictatorship comes from the Latin title dictator, which in the Roman Republic designated a temporary magistrate who was granted extraordinary powers in order to deal with state crises. Modern dictators, however, resemble ancient tyrants rather than ancient dictators. Ancient philosophers’ descriptions of the tyrannies of Greece and Sicily go far toward characterizing modern dictatorships. Dictators usually resort to force or fraud to gain despotic political power, which they maintain through the use of intimidation, terror, and the suppression of basic civil liberties. They may also employ techniques of mass propaganda in order to sustain their public support.



Asif represents two minorities who are suffering intimidation, terror and suppression of basic civil liberties in the United States. Trump’s initiatives and remarks enrich hatred all over the world; promising to build a wall to keep the “Mexicans out”, attempting to ban citizens of several Muslim-Majority countries from entering the United States, or simply saying “I think Islam hates us”.

How can a president of the United States publicly adopt notions of White Supremacy? How can a candidate win the presidential elections with full hate rhetoric? How does that influence actions across the globe?

Dictators can rise to power anytime, in any country, even today



A tough economy keeps us running in circles... desperate for a way out, people are willing to turn their backs on established political institutions to support a strong leader, they think can fix the problem.
For numerous times, Donald Trump stated that "The system is rigged and broken", "We are competing in a rigged election" and the weirdest statement "I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win".

When 50 People were killed in a couple of mosques in New Zealand, the main- terrorist (although he was white enough to be called a gunman by Fox News) had several global incidents marked on the weapon.


This basically proves the rise of a global trend of hate, intolerance, discrimination and bigotry. 
Acts of terrorism cannot be singled out and confronted individually; it requires collective action from human beings across the globe to make a difference.





In this world, civilians are killed in mosques, churches, schools, hospitals... In order to integrate our communities and fight bigotry, our condolences shall be offered to all human beings; we need to acknowledge that it is a failure for our collective efforts to keep the world safe.
Offering "Religiously segregated" condolences to Muslims or to the followers of any other religion creates a normative construct that violence/crimes/acts of terrorism against this group of people is their problem and not ours. Regardless of the victims' religion, race, nationality... Younger generations should view how we share grief collectively.



we need to put an end to racism, religious intolerance, white supremacy, and Ultra Nationalist notions of National Exceptionalism 

“They are us” message from New Zealand is what we need to endorse. We are the Muslims killed mosques, the Christians killed in churches, the children killed in schools… We are Adnan Asif Paraveen, and we are facing the risk of deportation.

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