On Monday, December 7, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made an earth-shaking statement calling for rejection of all Muslims seeking entry to the U.S. Later, his representatives confirmed that this suggested ban would include Muslim tourists wanting to visit the United States temporarily.
These assertions are on top of his earlier call for surveillance to be continuously conducted against mosques. He also confirmed his interest in developing a database of all Muslims living on American soil. Despite President Barack Obama’s insistence that all Americans refrain from turning against each other in fear in the days following the suspected ISIS-enticed mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Trump pushed forward with his beliefs as part of his political platform.
Trump is attributing his beliefs and position in these matters to an online poll conducted by the equally polarizing Center for Security Policy. The poll claims that 25 percent of Muslims living in America support violence against Americans as part of a global campaign of jihad. Many believe the poll is false, with members of the media and other critics questioning where the numbers come from and whether they were responsibly obtained.
A Pew Research poll was also quoted in Trump’s press release, saying “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population” exists in the U.S.
However, James Bell, Pew’s Vice President of Global Strategy has said the organization cannot find the reference Trump is making, supposedly derived from their own statistics. Remaining as apolitical as Switzerland, Bell stated, “The statement released by Mr. Trump’s campaign does not specify a data point, so we can’t identify the report that he may be referencing.”
Despite the polarizing view of the candidate, many Trump supporters rallied behind him as speaking on what they want.
Perhaps most enthusiastically and boldly vocal are neo-Nazis in the country, as if anyone doubted their alignment with Trump’s statements. The white supremacists have been having a field day with Donald Trump’s apparent beliefs which lie parallel with at least a portion of their belief system.
The neo-Nazi website “Daily Stormer” went so far as to label Trump their “Glorious Leader.” Deeply offensive statements of bigotry, intolerance and encroachment upon minority freedoms followed the endorsement of their now-favored candidate.
The Daily Stormer is a site run by neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin. Its name is derived from the weekly newspaper of prominent Nazi Julius Streicher called, “The Stormer.”
One particularly dark quote from Daily Stormer on the subject reads, “Why were these monkeys ever allowed in in the first place? What an insane, stupid concept.”
In hailing Trump’s statement, the publisher wrote, “Donald Trump has made the ultimate statement of obvious fact: Moslems [sic] do not belong in White countries, and the logical thing to do is to get them out. It is so obvious that everyone had been led – by the Jews – to believe it was impossible. Now that it has been said, that cat will not return to its bag – ever. But the reality that this cat is permanently bagless is not stopping a global torrent of hatred against Our Glorious Leader who has recently achieved the title of ULTIMATE SAVIOR. Finally: Someone speaks sense.”
The “article” is signed, “Heil Donald Trump.”
For many Americans, such words of hate cause great alarm. Donald Trump is adding fuel to the fire of racism against Muslims and other minorities. While Trump is basking in both the controversy and his new-found and stirred up extremist followers, one must question where things will go from here. Is it truly possible for such a candidate to be voted into American presidency in 2016?
Many believe that now Trump’s popularity signals a need to stave off extremism and his candidacy as whole, with his potential for being named on a ballot also being potential for a radical disinterested in Constitutional rights entering the White House.
Much of what Trump said hearkens back to a certain candidate in 1930’s Germany who quietly ascended to power before quite literally taking the world by storm. Many fear Trump could become equally dangerous in his opinionated boldness and lack of political expertise, as indicated by these extreme assertions about Muslims.