Does Donald Trump plan on enforcing a world where he alone defines what “being American” means?
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Donald Trump found another group to insult yesterday: Belgians. Trump described Brussels as a “hellhole,” based on his assessment that the city’s large minority of Muslims have not “assimilated” to Belgian society.
Read this quote, and replace “they” with “Jews,” or any other group – Mormons, Quakers, Amish – and see if your reaction changes:
There is something going on, Maria. Go to Brussels. Go to Paris. Go to different places. There is something going on and it’s not good, where they want Shariah law, where they want this, where they want things that — you know, there has to be some assimilation. There is no assimilation. There is something bad going on.
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This writer finds some aspects of current Islamic practices troubling, particularly in the way many Muslim-majority countries treat women. And of course there are individuals who commit acts of terrorism that grew up and lived in the neighborhoods Trump is supposedly referencing, and who purport to carry out their violence in the name of Islam.
These are real concerns, and they deserve earnest dialogue towards solutions.
But it is usually Republicans who spearhead religious liberty over political coercion. Witness the recent conservative backing of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses because of her personal beliefs.
It is usually Republicans who spearhead religious liberty over political coercion. And it is unthinkable that any serious candidate could say the kinds of things Trump is saying about Muslims, if instead they were talking about Jews. Or Mormons..
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And I know of no Republican who trumpeted the notion that Dylann Roof’s recent shooting of nine African-Americans in Charleston somehow represented “real” Christianity. As far as Christians are concerned, such acts of unspeakable evil are the antithesis of Christianity as a faith system.
It is unthinkable that any serious political candidate could say the kinds of things Trump is saying about Muslims, if instead they were talking about Jews. Or Mormons. Or Quakers. Or the Amish. Or any other group that doesn’t fit the “norm” of American mainstream culture.
Implying that Muslims must “assimilate” is an incredibly loaded statement. What would that look like? Would you outlaw the wearing of veils – or other overtly religious garb – at public schools, as France has done?
That law has done nothing to “assimilate” Muslims in France; if anything, the refusal to accommodate religious practices has further aggravated relations between the French government and Muslims. Nor has it stopped the troubling trend of growing anti-Semitism in France.
How else would you force assimilation? Would everyone have to wear jeans and eat at McDonalds? Would speakers be set up in neighborhoods with large numbers who identify as Muslim, so country music could be introduced to these outsiders?
A project of assimilation seems not only impossible, but inherently offensive.
And once again, Donald Trump’s thoughtless rhetoric proves him wholly unsuitable to the presidency.
And once again, a new poll shows his lead on the Republican primary as solid as ever.
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Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Hi Jessichah
Read this interesting statisitic about immigrants in Denmark.
I have used Google translate and usually that works just fine,but be aware that the original document is in Danish
https://translate.google.no/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dst.dk%2Fda%2FStatistik%2FPublikationer%2FVisPub%3Fcid%3D020703&edit-text=
Have you been to a Middle Eastern country and seen how they address the assimilation issue? You can get stoned, drawn & quartered, drug behind a truck, hung, beheaded, your business can be burned, your accounts taxed / seized, wives and children kidnapped and enslaved / sold, you get you hands cut off and of course your daughter could earn a honour killing for being raped. These are not exceptions, they are revalent and frequent occurances. And for f* k sakes forget about being able to get a bacon cheese burger Your article Indictates entirly too much social justice pandering,… Read more »