Does the Trump administration want a holy war against Islam? It’s a terrifying but reasonable guess
Steve Bannon's apocalyptic views are very close to those of ISIS, and Trump is surrounded by religious zealots
Skip to CommentsTopics: Ben Carson, Betsy Devos, Christian Fundamentalism, Donald Trump, Fundamentalism, isis, Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism, Islamic State, Jeff Sessions, Middle East, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Muslim ban, muslim travel ban, Muslims, Steve Bannon, travel ban, Trump Administration, Politics News
SANLIURFA, TURKEY - OCTOBER 20: (TURKEY OUT) An explosion rocks Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by the militants of Islamic State (ISIS) group on a People's Protection Unit (YPG) position in the city center of Kobani, as seen from the outskirts of Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border, October 20, 2014 in Sanliurfa province, Turkey. According to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey will reportedly allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross the Syrian border to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in the Syrian city of Kobani while the United States has sent planes to drop weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Syrian Kurdish fighters around Kobani. (Photo by Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images)(Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Getty/Saul Loeb/Gokhan Sahin/Salon)After multiple delays, President Donald Trump finally signed a new executive order last Monday that reinstated a travel ban on citizens from six of the seven countries (Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Syria and Yemen) included in the previous order, which had been suspended after being struck down by the judiciary last month. The new ban arrived about a week after a Department of Homeland Security document that completely undermined the Trump administration’s stated rationale for the ban was leaked to the press.
The DHS report, which noted that citizens from the countries included in the first ban are “rarely implicated in U.S.-based terrorism,” and that an individual’s citizenship is an “unreliable indicator of terrorist threat to the United States,” was first published by the Associated Press as a draft document in late February. Less than a week later MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow obtained what appeared to be a final version, dated March 1.
The final analysis, coordinated with various other departments, determined that “most foreign-born, U.S-based violent extremists [are] likely radicalized several years after their entry to the United States,” and that different “experiences and grievances,” including “perceived injustices against Muslims in the homeland and abroad because of U.S. policies, feelings of anger and isolation, and witnessing violence as a child,” are the primary causes.
While experts have long contended that Islamophobic rhetoric and policies are more likely to fuel radicalization than to “eradicate” radical Islamic terrorism — the president’s purported goal — some were hopeful that Trump would rethink his ill-advised ban after being educated by his own government.
“I think the Muslim ban is dead,” remarked Maddow in her televised report.
Unfortunately, like most things that are based on facts, the report apparently had no effect on Trump, who has been firmly committed to some kind of ban since calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in late 2015.
While Trump’s unwillingness to abandon this reckless policy is probably more about his massive ego and inability to admit when he is wrong than anything else, one has to wonder whether there are ulterior motives involved. When the original ban was first unveiled, experts widely denounced it as “counterproductive” and “stupid” — and in Trump’s case, stupidity is probably the right word.
But the president’s advisers are far from stupid, and the implications of the ban can hardly be lost on its chief architect, Steve Bannon. Is it too far-fetched to surmise that Bannon — who has previously said that the “Judeo-Christian West” is at war with “expansionist Islamic ideology,” and that we’re on the verge of a “global war” against “Islamic fascism” — is actually trying to alienate Muslims and fuel radicalization?
Like many right-wing extremists in the West, Bannon’s worldview mirrors that of his archenemies in ISIS and al-Qaida, who also proclaim that the Islamic world and the Christian West cannot coexist peacefully, and that we are on the brink of an apocalyptic holy war. While the Christian fundamentalist and the radical Islamist are, in their minds, sworn enemies in this “clash of civilizations,” they are both reactionary ideologues who feed off each other.