The new Trump administration in a flurry of 14 executive orders or decrees has done a redefinition of the fundamental principles that has held the world together since-Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were murdered on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip.
Unfortunately, at the start of the Trump campaign even up to the very dawn of his Presidency, the world had deluded itself that there was no clear ideological underpinning and clear thought in what most people in the world’s political establishment, political commentators and main stream media called “Donald Trump’s rantings”. Defying all odds, all predictions and all opposition from the political establishment and main stream media- Donald Trump rose to power riding on mass discontent- especially from his army of ardent supporters frustrated by an increasingly unsafe world order and unfair globalization practices.
What the world failed to realize was that Trump who built immense wealth from his street smarts and employing very skilled talent had surrounded himself with extremely sharp strategists. These were led by his son in law Jared Corey Kushner a scion of a very successful Jewish family that had made a huge fortune in real estate and publishing and Chief strategist- Stephen Kevin “Steve” Bannon- executive chair of Breitbart News, a far-right news, opinion, and commentary website. Two deeply ideological people with a deep sense of world history and the place of the Jewish people and the white race in it.
It is important to clearly define the fundamentals of Trump’s world view even if you do not agree with it.
You can simply sum up Trumps main political views in two broad principles-
- Radical Islam is holding the world hostage, pointing a gun on all of our heads and has made the world totally unsafe.
- Globalization has dealt America a bad hand economically.
In Trump’s views in trying to play big brother. provider for and defender of the world; middle class and working class America has paid a huge prize in rutted and gutted out neighborhoods and factories and a rust belt filled with lost hopes, drug addiction and evaporated dreams. Meanwhile the nouveau rich in China, Mexico, Central and South America, the Middle East the far East and all other beneficiaries of globalization are living in swanking neighborhoods and smiling to the bank.
The more I thought about this over the course of those five days, January 24-28, 2017 in near solitude- I had to agree that I could not fault Donald Trump’s two broad world views. We will come to my position on his tactics later.
What is playing out before us is an alignment and realignment of forces that has deep historical roots and consequences.
The rise of radical Islam is an offshoot of the belief of many fundamentalist Muslims that the Western way of life is corrupt and defies the ways of Allah and the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.
This deep, fundamental and historical rift stretches back to scripture predating Mohammedan times.
The biblical account which Christians hold onto, states that God’s plan of salvation was through the sons of the father of faith, Abraham. It has the son of Sarah – his wife-Isaac – as “the son of promise” and the Son of Hagar – Ishmael ” as the son of the bond woman” disinherited from the promise.
In Islam’s interpretation of God’s plan, Ishmael takes on the role of the son of promise. The Koran presents radical differences from the Bible concerning God’s interaction with mankind. These differences are most apparent in the Koran’s explanation of the nature of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures, who would come to save humanity. While some in Judaism may accept the first century Jesus of Nazareth as a special rabbi, and Muslims accept Him as a great prophet, Christians ascribe to Jesus the remarkable status of divinity in a personal relationship with the Father. To devout Muslims, this is polytheism.
In a 1990 article, The Roots of Muslim Rage, Bernard Lewis, a British American historian, public intellectual and political commentator opines that although “Islam has brought comfort and peace of mind to countless millions of men and women, giving dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives teaching people of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in tolerance, inspiring a great civilization in which others besides Muslims live creative and useful lives and which, by its achievement, enriched the whole world. However, in his opinion, Islam, like other religions, has also known periods when it inspired in some of its followers a mood of hatred and violence. It is our misfortune that part, though by no means all or even most, of the Muslim world is now going through such a period, and that much, though again not all, of that hatred is directed against us.
These views were echoed by Dr. Fareed Zakaria a CNN analyst and commentator in his 2016 documentary, Why they hate us.
Throughout history many ideological and physical wars between the West and Islam have been fought along these fundamental principles. Preceding the era of Renaissance – (1300-1600), a period in European history regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history, the brutal crusades (1095–1291) were fought to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher from the stranglehold of Islam.
And to make matters worse, Islam and it’s practitioners have never forgiven the West for the “annexation” of Palestine, the reestablishment of the nation of Israel, and the return of the Holy Land and Jerusalem to the Jews at the end of the 2nd World War in 1948.
From the foregoing, which will take years of history study, a good student of history will know that trying to appease radical Islam is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.
What has appeasement brought to the people of France, Germany, Holland, Britain, United States and other countries around the world and all the politicians and leaders who have opened up their borders to welcome hordes of migrants from historically tyrannical Arab countries that are fleeing oppression by their leaders.
Trying to assimilate radical Islam has brought the West and the world- horrific massacres such as 911 and countless cold blooded murders littering the world’s landscape.
To further complicate matters are the deep internal differences between Sunni, Shitte, Suffi, Wahabi etc sects of Islam, and the very important role countries in the Middle East, led by the powerful House of Saud, rulers of Saudi Arabia play in the world’s oil supplies and the huge wealth created out of that the key role that money plays in the world’s economy.
The unfortunate thing is that because it is kept in power by American might and the power of the West there is a very deep distrust that the rest of the Arab world have of the House of Saud, rulers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who emerged with the support and behest of the British crown in 1932.
There remains deep in Arab closets- vicious whispers of ‘a possible Jewish origin of the house of Saud.
In the light of the above complexities in Islam and the Arab world, it is therefore difficult to chain radical Islam, and very difficult to fault Donald Trump quarantining the situation until he figures out exactly how to make progress in dealing with the totally complicated historical situation.
The very unfortunate thing for the leaders of radical nations like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc is that Trump is in bed with the other strong man of the world, representing another immense power- Vladmir Putin of Russia. What Trump has technically done is to re-enthrone a dual super power world that Ronald Reagan dismantled with the end of the cold war in 1991.
Truth be told, the cost of sustaining NATO, protecting Europe and policing the world has stretched American resources to a breaking point in the last 30 years. Infrastructure is rotting, ossified in developments that were done back in the 1970’s. Globalization has not helped matters either- with gutted factories in the rust belt.
That was why Trump refused to even respond when the Queen’s Prime Minister- Theresa May- came again bearing instructions to new American President from her majesty the Queen to “her American subjects” on the issue of sustaining Russian sanctions.
Maybe to make America great again, America has to cut back on the huge resources it wastes in policing the whole world, safeguarding Europe, protecting the British crown, cut back its sphere of influence, hand back these historically rouge and extremely difficult nations to Russia, a country that has a huge radical Islamic population and has historically dealt well with the complexities of radical Islam.
Next on Saturday 02/04/2017
-Tearing down the present unfair globalization practices, with China at the center
On Thursday 02/09/2017
– How does all this complicated grammar affect the mess going on in Africa?
– Will the poor masses of Africa see any relief in a rigged system foisted on it by the evil machinations of European imperialists, led by the British crown, and an indolent, inept and empty leadership that have been raping and pillaging the African people since “political independence”?
Indian wells resort, California
1/28/17
Chike, is Publisher/CEO @ Life & Times Media Group, the largest African Diaspora Media House, based in Hollywood California.
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