On February 4th 2017, US authorities rolled back a controversial travel ban on people from seven Muslim countries after a judge suspended it. The state department said it was reversing the cancellation of visas, 60,000 of which were revoked after President Donald Trump’s order. Will this end Trump’s negative policies towards the Muslim world?
Comment:
What is outrageous is not the ban in itself, but the worldwide protests that failed to condemn America’s bombing of Muslim countries. America’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, military forays into Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen, dismemberment of Sudan, sanctions imposed on Iran and support for Assad to destroy the Syrian people has created the largest refugee crisis witnessed in modern times.
Instead of exposing America’s crimes against the Muslim world, the neoliberal elite that had orchestrated the global public outcry against Trump was careful not to invoke condemnation of endless Western interference in Islamic lands. This raises the disturbing prospect that of further Western interventions.
There is little doubt, Trump’s Muslim ban is the opening salvo, and more vitriol and horror is yet to come. Hidden from public view, Steve Bannon—the main instigator of the Muslim ban along with Trump— harbors some despicable views against Islam. In 2014, at a conference in the Vatican, Bannon advocated a hard-hitting posture against Islam and praised Europe in preventing the expansion of Islam. He said. “I believe you should take a very, very, very aggressive stance against radical Islam… If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept it [Islam] out of the world, whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places.”
President Trump is the first US president to mention the word Islamic in the inauguration address and propelled Islam to the top of the foreign policy agenda. The inclusion of Bannon to the National Security Council not only gives him unlimited access to shape US foreign policy towards the Muslim world but in addition, it is a clear sign that Bannon is to provide ideological overtones to America’s war with Islam.
President Bush exploited the events of September 11 2001 and established the foundations of America’s 21st century crusade, which resulted in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Under President Obama, the crusade expanded to encompass Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya and Syria. Now the Muslim world awaits to see which Islamic country is America’s next target.
Both the crusades and the slumber amongst Muslims to expel the West are not new. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the crusades, and it took a mammoth effort to unify the Muslim ummah in Levant and banish the crusader forces in 1291. Imad ad-Din Zengi placed the basis for Salahuddin to give the crusader forces a crushing blow in 1187 at the battle of Hittin. However, it was not until the rise of the Mamaluks in Egypt— almost a century later—that the crusaders and their Mongol allies were totally vanquished from the Levant and Iraq. The Mamaluks repeated the feat of Caliph Abu Bakr in defeating two major powers simultaneously.
After a hiatus of 600 years, the crusader forces returned to the Islamic world, and destroyed the Caliphate in 1924. This gave the West complete freedom to invade and pillage the Muslim world. Unless the Muslim ummah redoubles her efforts to re-establish the rightly guided Islamic Caliphate, Trump and his allies will continue to plunge the crusader’s dagger deep into the Muslim world tearing the Islamic lands from limb to limb.
Hence, intentional paralysis and indifference is not an option. Allah says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَنْ يَرْتَدَّ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ذَلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
“O you who have Iman! Whoever turns back among you from his religion, then soon Allah (will) bring a people whom He loves and they love Him, humble towards the believers (and) stern towards the disbelievers; striving in (the) way (of) Allah and not fearing the blame (of) a critic.”
(Al Maida: 54)
Abdul Majeed Bhatti