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Friday, March 29, 2024

A Muslim’s message to Trump, Cruz and Carson

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“If they were to get the better of you, they would behave to you as enemies, and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you for evil: and they desire that ye should reject the Truth.” Holy Qur’an – 60:2

America has a long history of religious inclusivity that dates back to her 1776 origin as a nation as witnessed in the wording of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” How can someone pursue to hold the highest office in the land while disregarding one of our nation’s highest principles of religious freedom?

What part of that Constitutional phrase escapes the intelligence of our presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and former candidate Ben Carson? President Barack Obama was correct when he said, “Islam has always been part of America.” Muslims have fought for America in every war since the American Revolution and today many thousands of Muslims are currently serving in the U.S. military.

One message from the Islamic community to such presidential candidates is they are honest and truthful and they stop trying to create fear and hatred in the minds and hearts of the American public. These candidates claim they are not race baiting. If this is true then quit fanning the flames of racism and bigotry that attracts narrow-minded Americans who want to return our country to their idea of “greatness.”

Our Muslim children still have to attend school and play with their friends but now under the weightiness of anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from Trump, Cruz and Carson; which behooves the question directed to Ben Carson: How in the world – after slavery and Jim Crowism – can any African-American speak out against another innocent minority who is seeking their share of America?

Our Muslim women adorned in their beautiful modest dress have to go to work or shop at the grocery store often with trepidation of being attacked; evils we have recently witnessed in Plainfield and Bloomington, Indiana.

Allah has warned humanity of such divisive people as outlined in the above Qur’anic verse; people who will “stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you for evil.” America and the world is living in an era of people coming together with a spirit to recognize the “other” while appreciating and often times even celebrating their “otherness.” America does not need political leaders on any level who cannot support this new American spirit of inclusivity.

Allah say in the Qur’an, “…we made you into nations and tribes so that you may recognize (get acquainted) with one another…” (Chapter 49: verse 13). Interfaith is alive and well in Indianapolis and America and diverse groups are getting acquainted with one another. The tendency to remain closed up in our respective houses of worship and wrapped up in separate religious ideologies and never engaging with people of other faiths is quickly becoming passé and for these developments Muslims are very grateful and humbled.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz, as well as to our brother Mr. Ben Carson, our Islamic communities are deep-rooted in the American soil and the American process of freedom and democracy. Your demagoguery that disrespects the intelligence of our American citizenry will not be successful. Your fear-mongering campaigning will not work today.

Quit trying to make all Muslims guilty for the evil acts of un-Islamic groups like “ISIS” and Boko Haram. Isn’t it a quite small-minded person who will condemn a whole religion of over 1.5 billion people for the wayward actions of a few who claim their faith? The Ku Klux Klan claims to be both American and Christian; however, no one in their right mind will condemn this nation or malign the whole of Christianity for the evils of the KKK.

We, Muslims-Americans, are integral components in every facet of our society. We have no conflict in our Muslim-American spirit of a “two-ness.” We claim loudly and proudly that we are at peace being both Muslim and American – a proclamation that no presidential candidate and deny, shrink or put in containment. Muslims too are, “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” This is a Muslim message to Trump, Cruz and Carson that their misrepresentations of Islam and Muslims cannot deny us what our Creator has already given to every human being.

Michael Saahir is the imam at Nur-Allah Islamic Center. He can be reached at nur-allah@att.net.

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