Thomas Friedman lashes out at Trump over anti-Muslim remarks

New York Times writer Thomas Friedman said US candidate Donald Trump, by alienating the Muslim world with his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, acts as a secret agent of Daesh militant group.

Daesh wants every Muslim in America (and Europe) to feel alienated. If that happens, Daesh won’t need to recruit anyone. People will will just act on their own. Daesh and Islamic extremism are Muslim problems that can only be fixed by Muslims. Lumping all Muslims together as our enemies will only make that challenge harder.

But if Trump is wrong, is President Barack Obama right? Partly. He’s right that the only way you can sustainably defeat Daesh is with a coalition. We need moderate Sunni Muslim forces to go house to house against Daesh in Iraq. We need Sunni spiritual leaders to go heart to heart and delegitimize the Daesh message everywhere. And we need Iran to make clear it supports an equitable power-sharing agreement in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites, so moderate Sunni Arabs will fight Daesh rather than seeing it as their shield against Iran.

Apply more pressure on our Sunni allies to join the anti-ISIS fight with troops on the ground; call on the Saudis and other Sunnis to loudly delegitimize ISIS; deploy more U.S. and NATO Special Forces; make clear to Iran that we might have to put the nuclear deal on hold if Iran is not a more constructive partner in Iraq and Syria; and stress that while we know that the violent jihadis are a minority among Muslims, the notion that they’re a totally separate and distinct group is not true.

There are some good signs. NPR reported Monday that “when a man wielding a knife stabbed three people at an East London subway stop on Saturday evening and shouted, ‘This is for Syria,’ as he was being handcuffed … an onlooker yelled, ‘You ain’t no Muslim, bruv!’ using slang akin to ‘bro.’ ‘You’re no Muslim. You ain’t no Muslim,’ he repeated.” The man who made the statement has not been identified, but the hashtag ‘#YouAintNoMuslimBruv’ began trending worldwide,” no doubt propelled by Muslims. That’s what we need more of.

As for Trump, well, he may be a dealmaker, but he’s no poker player ready for the Middle East five-card stud sharks. His xenophobic rhetoric and unrealistic, infantile threats of massive bombing make up the kind of simplistic hand you’d play in “Go Fish” – not in this high-stakes game.

Beyond playing into ISIS’ hand by denigrating the U.S. presidency and our democratic ideals, Trump is doing real damage to America’s ability to lead a coalition, the only vehicle that can effectively address this problem.

#You ain’t no American, bro.

Sources: MENA