In this hysterical little smear piece (to which the Daily Caller remains oddly hospitable), the brazenly and unapologetically dishonest Ahmadi spokesman Kashif Chaudhry, a willing water-carrier for Muslim Brotherhood propaganda, manages to defame Donald Trump, Pamela Geller, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and me, all in the space of a few paragraphs, while doing his best to obscure the grim reality of Islamic jihad terrorism.
The thrust of Chaudhruy’s argument here is that Trump, egged on by Geller, Harris, Hirsi Ali and me, is creating an atmosphere of hatred against Muslims in the U.S. that mirrors the hostility against Ahmadis that was whipped up during the presidency of Zia ul-Haq, and that ultimately broke out into open violence and persecution. “Will Trump,” Chaudhry asks melodramatically, “be the Zia ul-Haq of America?”
Here’s the answer: No.
Here are some reasons why:
- Ahmadis are persecuted in Pakistan because the dominant Sunni ideology is authoritarian, supremacist and violent. Sunnis in Pakistan are behaving toward the Ahmadiyya in the same way that they behave toward Pakistan’s Christians. They are responding to the Ahmadis in the way the texts and teachings of their religion command them to act toward those who are considered heretics and apostates, just as they’re acting toward the Christians in the way that the texts and teachings of their religion command them to act toward the “People of the Book.” In the U.S., meanwhile, Trump is not the exponent of a violent, supremacist, authoritarian ideology, and there is no such ideology dominating the public discourse in this country.
- No Ahmadis were committing acts of violence and terrorism against non-Ahmadis. Nor were they calling for such acts. In contrast, Sunnis in the U.S. have committed such acts recently, and have threatened more. Trump’s call for a temporary end to Muslim immigration was designed to limit that jihad violence, not victimize any innocent people.
- The idea that Geller, Harris, Hirsi Ali and I “have craftily convinced a large faction of America that Islam is evil and that Muslims are to be feared and suspected” is risible on its face. If any non-Muslims in the U.S. are convinced that Islam is evil and that Muslims are to be feared and suspected, the people who are responsible are Muhammad Atta, Nidal Malik Hasan, Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik and others like them. What have Chaudhry and other Ahmadi Muslim spokesmen done to challenge the understanding of Islam that motivated them? Why, nothing.
Note also Chaudhry’s sinister use of language. Calling Pakistan under Zia “Trumpistan” is, of course, designed to suggest that an America with Trump as President would be just as authoritarian and violent. Note also his use of the smear term “far right” for Geller and me, when the only reason why we are called that is that we oppose jihad terror and Islamic supremacism, and his charge that we (and Harris and Hirsi Ali) have “radicalized many American minds.” The use of the word “radicalized” is designed to suggest a moral equivalence between those who commit acts of jihad terror and those who oppose such acts. If Chaudhry were to get his wish and we were silenced entirely, the same jihad terror that victimizes his people in Pakistan would advance unopposed. That, apparently, is what he wants.
“I Don’t Want Another Trumpistan,” by Kashif Chaudhry, Daily Caller, December 17, 2015:
…Ten years later, then president Zia ul-Haq passed an ordinance curtailing the religious freedom of Ahmadi Muslims. Thousands – including three of my uncles — were rounded up from across the country for identifying as Muslim, praying like Muslims or reading the Quran.
Since then, violence has only escalated. Talibani militants have killed hundreds of Ahmadi Muslims. Mobs have torched thousands of Ahmadi Mosques, homes, and businesses, most recently three weeks ago. And millions of Ahmadi Muslims remain disenfranchised with no representation in government. To escape this brutal persecution, I decided to move to the United States. And after finding a new home in this great country, I am suddenly – for the first time – experiencing a déjà vu.
Will Trump be the Zia ul-Haq of America?
For quite some time, anti-Muslim sentiment has been systematically nurtured in America. There has been a whole network of propagandists and fear-mongers that have – like Maududi — laid the foundation for this rise in anti-Muslim sentiment. They have craftily convinced a large faction of America that Islam is evil and that Muslims are to be feared and suspected. The fear mongering of the likes of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller on the far right and the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Sam Harris of the new atheist movement has, over the years, radicalized many American minds.
And now, this bigoted narrative has sadly crept into mainstream politics. Politicians like Trump are capitalizing on the fear, and ushering in an epidemic of hate….