Trump’s call shows level of ignorance about Islam within sections of US society: Scholar

The fact that Donald Trump's outrageous call to bar all Muslims from entering the US has “struck a chord” with some Americans “speaks to the level of ignorance and Islamophobia within certain segments” of the US society, American scholar Dennis Etler says.

The Republican presidential candidate in a statement on Monday called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” until American “representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Later in the day in a speech aboard the USS Yorktown, Trump read part of his statement aloud. "We have no choice," he declared, saying they want to kill Americans.

"It's going to get worse and worse. We're going to have more World Trade Centers," he said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

Professor Etler said  although Trump’s “proposal has been roundly condemned by nearly all presidential candidates, both Republican and Democrat, as well as nearly all commentators on the subject, his demagogic appeal has struck a chord with some ordinary Americans. This speaks to the level of ignorance and Islamophobia within certain segments of the America public.”

“Even though Trump's outrageous demand is widely rejected by most Americans the mere fact that he could make such a proposal and be taken seriously by many voters is an ill omen,” Etler, professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, told Press TV on Tuesday.

“Years of alarmist propaganda against Muslims, decades of war against Muslim countries and the general lack of knowledge about Islam amongst the general public have created the conditions by which Trump's statements could even be uttered,” he added.

“Trump while more outspoken and over the top in his pronouncements than others has merely taken the anti-Muslim rhetoric of many public figures to its logical conclusion. His popularity seems to be based on his willingness to say what others feel but are too hesitant to say themselves,” the analyst pointed out.

“This anti-Muslim sentiment is used to obfuscate what really lies behind the scenes, US attempts to impose its will on the people of the Middle East and elsewhere where Muslims are in the majority,” the scholar noted.  

“By scapegoating Islam as a religion that advocates terrorism it makes it easier for the US and its allies and proxies to take aggressive actions against Muslim nations. Terrorism thus plays into the hands of the enemies of Islam and the Muslim people wherever they may be,” Professor Etler concluded.

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