Islam is going to be the last giant to face Christians. In the few days since Donald Trump took office, he has signed quite a number of executive orders, some of which have caused heated debates. The current media and left wing buzz about President Trump’s executive order that he signed enacting a temporarily ban on entry into the USA of nationals from seven Muslims countries is normal. I don’t understand what all the buzz is about; he is just doing what he told his supporters he would do if he was elected President. There is no doubt that President Trump has declared war on Radical Islam, thereby demonstrating that his administration will shift America’s approach to terrorism. People should understand that President Trump’s order did not come from nowhere. President Obama ‘s approach to terrorism produced the ISIS and caused Americans to vote for Donald Trump out of disenchantment and frustration, and Muslims in the West have produced Donald Trump’s policies toward them.For years President Obama refused to properly address the threat of radical ideology by fighting against it. So the American people decided they wanted to have a tough leader who would call something by its name without being constrained by political correctness. Denying the problem will not solve the problem itself; the only way to solve the problem is to address it correctly. It is true that Islamic values and Western values clash with one another. This is not about hate toward Muslims nor producing hate or fear. We need to accept our differences before we agree on our commonalities; that is the problem. Donald Trump is not just temporarily restricting immigration from seven Muslims countries to the United States, but also he tells the public that Islam hates the West. We are living in a world war against an ideological movement with many of its members committed to kill those who do not believe or share an ideology with them.
It is for sure that Trump’s Presidency will have a paradigm shift from Obama‘s Presidency. It is for sure that Donald Trump will not take an apology tour around the world like his predecessor Obama did. Certainly, he will not blame everything going on around the world on America, and he will not bow to the King of Saudi Arabia. President Trump promised his voters like me that he would reinforce homeland security, bring investors, find jobs for Americans, and refuse to take malevolent immigrants who are committed to kill Americans.
Islam’s relations with the West have never been amicable, and there is no trust between the West and Muslims. Many Muslims think the West is trying to destroy Islam. They keep reminding the world and teaching history from the Christian involvement in the Crusades of the Middle Ages and more recently the wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Africa. Many Muslims do not see Western values and traditions as being compatible with the Muslims values. I think the solution is very simple. Muslims leaders should prevent their followers from migrating to the land of infidels or Satan, a common labeling for many Muslims. If an individual thinks it is a bad place to live, then there no need for him to go there, but if he thinks its is a good place to live, then embrace it. That’s what this is all about it.
Basically what Donald Trump is saying is that if you are nice, peace loving, and amenable to obeying my house rules and will be a good neighbor, then my door is open for you to come in, but if you are not, then you should not come. Instead, we see that what happened is the scenario in Europe now in which so many Muslims do not want to live by house rules but instead make changes in them. It is easy to blame someone or President Trump, but it is not only President Trump who has the same sentiments. Throughout Europe there has emerged the same feelings toward Muslims who immigrate to the West and do not comply with the norms and values of their host country. That accounts for the rise in nationalism in the West, and the decline of multiculturalism and political correctness. It is easy to try to correct someone else, but has ever Muslim in particular and the Muslim world in general done their job in evaluating themselves to determine what they have done wrong? Why do so many countries in the West not want Muslim immigrants to come to their countries. These ban policies will not end in the USA, but they will spread all over Europe and other countries. Western leaders are still afraid to address the three of fundamentalism in the West, but those who do address it are winning the election. This boldness in tackling reality explains the rise of nationalism in the West.
The problem is that many Muslim migrants to Western countries face the dilemma of balancing their fear of Western cultural assimilation against the loss of their identity. When we compare the Muslims to other religious or ethnic minorities, we find that they do not have as many problems as Muslim immigrants do. Because Muslims and the West have different worldviews, the two views are in conflict with each other. Islam is a way of life encompassing all aspects of life: social, political, cultural, as well as religious. The Western culture is more secular and believes in individualism. The clash of values, ideology, religion, and culture leaves emotional and physiological scars. Especially with the recent bombings in the West and the in the United States perpetrated by some fundamentalists, nationals in their frustration and hate have voted for Donald Trump to do something different, because rather than following political correctness, he is addressing the problem realizing that Western and Islamic values are not compatible with each other.
What happened when President Obama opened his heart to the Muslims world? When he took the podium at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, he called for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim world. He promised to personally pursue Palestinian- Israel peace and to bring U.S troops home from Iraq; he blamed President Bush for the war in Iraq; he said he wold invest millions of American dollars in education, particularly in science; and he would promote women’s rights among the Muslim world. After eight years of the Obama administration what has changed in the Muslim world? Nothing.
For the West, America or any other non-Muslim country to welcome Muslims into their society will depend on the Muslims’ resourcefulness and how well they are able to integrate into the society, culture, and values. I do believe we should have an open border policy, because it gives us an advantage to discover more about our universe and about each other, but it sad to say that we don’t live in a world where everybody respects each another and sees our difference as a richness and blessings rather than a threat. We see people who are driven by bad ideology trying to take advantage of the kindness of others. Whether one believes this point or not, Islam regards itself as having a universal mission to proclaim itself to be the only true religion which everyone must embrace. Some Muslims, like the Gulen movement, promote the goal of internationalization and globalization of Islam. They argue that Muslims should take advantage of globalization and see all the means of progress in science, economics, politics, and the military in order to advance over non-Muslim countries and try to conquer within. Muslims should be careful to protect themselves from the negative culture of the West and take the positive aspects of the West, such as science and technology, but Muslims believe that the Western culture is being corrupted.
Actually Presidents Bush and Obama tried to give the picture of combating Jihadist terrorism while avoiding the idea that the West and the Muslim world are engaged in some of kind war with one another. Reconciling with the Muslim world was the theme of Obama’s approach to his foreign policy in that area of the world. In his first speech abroad, an address to the Turkish Parliament in April 2009, he claimed, “The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam; we seek broader engagement and mutual respect and mutual interest.”
However, President Trump publically admitted that the United States is at war with radical Islamic ideology to preserve the Western Civilization. “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.” My view is that day-by-day Islam is going to be center stage and is not going to go way anytime soon. Islam is going to be last giant to face Christians and
Western values. In the past, we have not seen any leaders who have addressed the followers of Islam, but never before has an American President ever spoken to the other world faiths, whether Buddhists or Catholics.
. Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
