Dangers of Trump’s Anti-Islam, Anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan Strategy
By Sajjad Shaukat
Since Donald Trump became the President of the United States, it was expected that he will act with responsibility, showing pragmatism. But, President Trump has continued anti-Islam, anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan strategy without bothering for its dangers for America, the Islamic countries and the entire world.
In this regard, President Donald Trump stated in his tweet on January 1, this year, “The US has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Weeks earlier of this tweet, while, unveiling national security strategy, Trump had said, “We make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.”
In his speech on August 21, 2017, while announcing the US new strategy regarding Afghanistan as part of the policy in South Asia, President Donald Trump, particularly, singled out Pakistan for criticism.
Using tough words against the US ally Pakistan, Trump revived the old blame game of his predecessors Bush and Obama regarding the cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan by saying Washington could “no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations”, and threatened to target the terrorists’ sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Trump stated, “We have been paying Pakistan billions of dollars, at the same time, they are housing the very terrorists we are fighting…that must change immediately.”
As regards Pakistan’s regional rival India, Donald Trump added, “We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan…We want them to help us more with Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, on January 5, 2018, the US suspended $255 million of military aid to Islamabad as a condition to do more against terrorism.
Taking cognizance of the latest tweet of the President Trump, Pakistan’s civil and military leaders, including all the mainstream political parties united against the US aggressive stance against the country and offered a stark response to Trump’s false accusations.
In this respect, a high level meeting of National Security Committee (NSC), which included senior civil-military leaders was held on January 2, this year to discuss US President Donald Trump’s latest allegations about Pakistan.
Similarly, on January 4, 2017, the in-camera session of Parliamentary Committee on National Security was convened under the chairmanship of Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in which all parties’ parliamentary leaders participated.
The meeting expressed concern at the assertion of the US President Donald and condemned it. After the meeting, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq told the journalists, “Pakistan wants to give a strong and balanced reaction on the US President’s statement…the parliament is not indifferent on defence of the country…all political parties have consensus on it and they are all on one page pertaining to national security, defence and prestige of Pakistan.”
After the committee’s meeting concluded, calling on the country to unite, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mehmood Qureshi addressed the media and pointed out that the pressure that Washington is exerting on Pakistan “will have implications on the entire region…We have to look at the situation in the Middle East, at relations between the US and Iran …We have to consider these things as they are part of the larger picture upon which our response must be formulated…Trump’s statement is of an unusual nature. We have to take it seriously…the figures put forward by Washington differ from the reality and that, during the fight against terror, Pakistan has taken up expenditures that the US is yet to reimburse.”
Defence Minister Ghulam Dastagir stated that, after 16 years of fighting terror, the US owed Pakistan $23 billion. He added that, of this amount, Pakistan has been paid $14bn and an amount of $9bn is pending.
Besides, other politicians including PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif rejected Trump’s blame game.
Chairman Imran Khan said, “Just as India blames Pakistan for the indigenous Kashmiri uprisings when these are a result of its own failed policy of repression in the Indian Occupied Kashmir…So the US again blames Pakistan for its deeply flawed and failed Afghan policy stretching over a decade…We must also reject being made scapegoats for the policy failures of the US and India…The new US policy is aimed at de-nuclearising Pakistan…India’s major role in Afghanistan as per Trump administration’s new strategy for the region will have adverse impacts on Pakistan…Trump had threatened Pakistan in open words and undermined the country’s major contributions towards that war. It seems Trump has no knowledge of this region. He does not know the dynamics of over a decade-old war the US has been fighting in Afghanistan…The Trump’s new strategy will further weaken the US government and its economy…If you want peace in Afghanistan, you need Pakistan. More troops and money will not serve the purpose.”
Pakistan’s Foreign minister Khawaja Asif remarked, “Terrorist sanctuaries are present in East Afghanistan. It is from these safe havens inside Afghanistan that terrorist attacks are being launched on Pakistan…The claim by Trump regarding the funds, if we account for it, they include reimbursements too for the services rendered by Pakistan…Our land, roads, rail and, other different kinds of services were used for which we were reimbursed.
According to the earlier statement of the ISPR, “Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa stated that “Pakistan was not looking for any material or financial assistance from USA but trust, understanding and acknowledgement of our contributions…peace in Afghanistan is as important for Pakistan as for any other country.”
Trump’s tweets came a few days after the DG of ISPR Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan had done enough and it was time for the United States and Afghanistan to do more. He also urged the US to “check India’s anti-Pakistan role not only from inside of Afghanistan but also through the enhanced and increased ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary”.
However, although American Presidents George w. Bush and Barack Obama manipulated the 9/11 tragedy and its drastic aftermath to secure the illegitimate interests of Israel through the fake war on terror which was, in fact, a war against the Islamic countries and the Muslims, as ground realties have proved, yet President Donald Trump has crossed all the limits in protecting the political, economic and religious interests of the Jews and Israel at the cost of Muslims and even patriot Americans. What the President Bush and the President Obama were doing covertly, President Trump has been doing overtly.
Nevertheless, anti-Pakistan statements and moves of the pro-Israeli and pro-Indian US President Donald Trump cannot be seen in isolation, as the same are part of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim strategy.
Notably, during the presidential election-campaign, through various false flag terror attacks which occurred in the US, Europe and Afghanistan, Israel and India wanted to obtain their covert aims against Russia, the Muslims and Pakistan, even at the cost of loyalist Americans.
Particularly, Israeli secret agency Mossad had also provided the President Trump with an opportunity to manipulate various terror assaults of Europe and America to win the US presidential election and to reunite America and Europe, as a rift was created between America and its Western allies, especially Europe on a number of issues. President Trump had left no stone unturned in exploiting these terror attacks by speaking openly against the Muslims and Syrian immigrants. Trump had started exaggerating the threat of Islamophobia, while, some incidents were not linked to the Islamic state group (Also known Daesh, ISIS and ISIL), but were the result of self-radicalization of the individuals.
During the election-campaign, regarding various terrorism-related assaults, President Trump’s extremist statements such as banning the Muslims from entering the United States and the screening process of the Muslims for entering the US might be cited as instance.
In this regard, Khaled A. Beydoun opined on the Aljazeera multimedia network on March 13, 2016, “The world brand Trump is becoming synonymous with expansion of racism and incitement of Islamophobia…I think Islam hate us, said Donald Trump, 24 hours before the Republican presidential debate in Miami…is a call to his voting base, to further galvanise them around a disdain for Islam that not only heightens hateful fervour at his rallies, but incites violence on American blocks and pushes bigots to the ballot box…the statement is rooted in the very ignorance and hate which made him the darling of bigots and surged him up the polls…Islamophobia…the suspicion and fear of Islam and its 1.7 billion adherent-is political ideology for Trump.”
After becoming American President, Donald Trump has continued his extremist policies inside the US and abroad without ignoring the fact that there is a co-relationship of America’s internal and external policies. He introduced a ban on arrivals to the US from a number of mainly-Muslim countries.
President Trump’s Israeli connections were proved on December 6, last year when he officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.
America’s Western allies and even the pro-US Islamic counties have rejected Trump’s move, which reversed decades of US neutrality on the status of Jerusalem.
One of the dangers of such a strategy is that undoubtedly, angry elements within the Muslims countries, particularly in the pro-Arab states may react against America and its interests in the form of terrorism and other violent actions. Trump has also provided the terrorist outfits like ISIS new ammunition for recruitment of militants and to radicalize the Muslims in the US and other western countries. Trump’s decision will offer extremist groups a valuable opportunity to capitalise on anti-US sentiment.
If we note related-developments in the world, especially in the Middle East and South Asia, we observe that the ISIL, including its linked terror organizations and similar other outfits are being supported by the intelligence agencies such as American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad.
It is of particular attention that like President Trump, BJP-led hardliner-Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had got a land sliding triumph in the Indian elections 2014 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans. Hence, since the Prime Minister Modi came to power in India, he has been implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda. Encouraged by the BJP, assaults on Muslims, Christians and other minorities by the Hindu extremist parties might be cited as example. New Delhi which has strategic partnership with Israel and America has perennially been manipulating the double game of the US-led West regarding world phenomena of terrorism in connection with Pakistan and Afghanistan, while manipulating their anti-Muslim approach to obtain Indo-Israeli clandestine designs.
Emboldened by the fanatic President Trump, India has continued shelling in Pakistani side of Kashmir which remains a nuclear flashpoint between both the neighbouring countries.
Besides, Indian army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat said on January 14, this year, “We will call the (nuclear) bluff of Pakistan. If we will have to really confront the Pakistanis, and a task is given to us by the government, we are not going to say we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons…We will carry out any operation.”
On the same day DG of the ISPR Asif Ghafoor termed ‘nuclear bluff’ statement of India’s army chief as ‘irresponsible and childish’ by adding, “Such irresponsible statements from a person of a responsible stature are deplorable…Pakistan has maintained nuclear arsenal to deal with threats emanating from its eastern border…To impose aggression on Pakistan may be an Indian desire. India can initiate efforts if it wants to test our valour”
In fact, both Tel Aviv and New Delhi have been equating the ‘wars of liberation’ in Palestine and Kashmir with terrorism. Their main purpose is to divert the attention of the West from their own atrocities, while employing delaying tactics in the solution of these issues.
Likewise, puppet rulers of Afghanistan have always blamed Pakistan for cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan to divert attention from the acts of sabotage, which they have been arranging in Pakistan. While, Pakistan’s security forces have eliminated terrorism, but, recent blasts in the Balochistan province and other regions of Pakistan show that the US-led India, Afghanistan and Israel who are supporting the militant groups have, again, started acts of terrorism to destabilize Pakistan and to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
As a matter of fact, President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim strategy has also accelerated domestic extremism in the US.
In this context, Anthony H. Cordon wrote on the website of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), on July 5, 2017, “The focus on terrorism and Islamist extremism often leads Americans, our politics, and U.S. media to ignore the fact that what we call “terrorism” and Islamic extremism is only one part of the pattern of American extremism and violence. The FBI publishes an annual summary of the patterns in hate crimes, and one that has steadily improved its coverage of all forms of religious extremism. For example, the latest report—covering 2015—was issued in November 2016 and is the first to include seven new religious anti-bias categories (anti-Buddhist, anti-Eastern Orthodox, anti-Hindu, anti-Jehovah’s Witness, anti-Mormon, anti-other Christian, and anti-Sikh), as well as an anti-Arab bias motivation…There were 5,818 single-bias incidents involving 7,121 victims. Of those victims, 59.2 percent were targeted because of a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 19.7 percent because of a religious bias; 17.7 percent because of a sexual orientation bias; 1.7 percent because of a gender identity bias; 1.2 percent because of a disability bias; and 0.4 percent because of a gender bias. There were an additional 32 multiple-bias incidents that involved another 52 victims. Of the 4,482 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons, intimidation accounted for 41.3 percent of those offenses, while 37.8 percent involved simple assault and 19.7 percent involved aggravated assault. There were 2,338 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, and the majority of those (72.6 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism….Of the 5,493 known offenders, 48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were black or African-American, and race was unknown for 16.2 percent of the offenders. The rest were of various other races. These data are a grim warning that overt, criminal acts of racism still present a major challenge in U.S. society.”
Taking note of Trump’s extremist policies, many top officials of the Trump Administration have resigned.
In America, CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security which are working as “a state within a state” or “shadow Government” or “Deep state means,” are also clandestinely working against one another. They do not respond to the civilian political leadership-the President and the Congressmen which are also fighting a war of nerves against each other. So, domestic extremism in the US may result into a civil war in the country.
Another danger is that at present, fanatic leaders are in power in the US, India and Israel, their connivance may culminate into ‘clash of civilizations’, particularly between the Muslim and the Christians worlds.
The most dangerous point is that in order to avoid the two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Tel Aviv will prefer atomic war between the US and Russia or between the US and North Korea. Nuclear war could also erupt between Pakistan and India, as New Delhi also avoids solution of the Kashmir issue.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
