A couple of days ago, we discussed Donald Trump's idiotic plan to keep Islamic terrorists out of the U.S. by temporarily barring all Muslims from entering the country. The emphasis of that post was to discuss how ineffective such a policy would be, as illustrated by the game 'Is Donald Trump Smarter than a Terrorist?' (spoiler alert: no).
The focus of today's discussion is the actual harm such a policy would do. It's pretty simple: If you single out some portion of the population and impose special restrictions on them, they tend to resent it. Any gun-owning Trump supporter knows what I'm talking about. A lot of right-wing gun-owners (incorrectly) believe that President Obama wants to take their guns away, and a lot of them love their guns so much --- a little too much, in my opinion --- that they come up with stuff like this:
If that's how you feel when you think the government is coming after your guns based on some conspiracy theory, imagine how much worse it is when a major-party candidate for President actually says he's going to ban everyone in your religion from entering the country. Or even worse, that he'll close down some of your churches. He's said these things about Muslims --- not just those guilty of terrorism, ALL Muslims, no matter how law-abiding.
Even worse, he's said that he would 'take out' the families of suspected terrorists --- not actual, convicted terrorists, mind you, just suspected terrorists. It's not clear whether he means executing those families or merely arresting them, but either way, punishing innocent people for the actions of their family members is not only un-American, it's the kind of thing Stalin would do. If you're Muslim, wouldn't this just scare the hell out of you? You don't control what your relatives do, and you sure as hell don't control what other people suspect your relatives of doing. And at this point, Trump seems to be pretty damn suspicious of all Muslims already.
For the most part, Trump's rhetoric is merely horrible, divisive and terrifying. But it's also one hell of a recruiting tool for ISIS. Like everyone else in the world, the vast majority of Muslims find terrorism abhorrent, so it's very difficult for groups like ISIS to recruit new members to their cause. But the best way they can convince young Muslims to give up their lives for their cause is to persuade them that the West wants to destroy Islam, and that extreme measures are needed to defend their culture. When Trump effectively declares a war on Muslims and their families, it makes ISIS's job that much easier.
This isn't just theoretical. More than two months ago, CNN reported that a Somali terrorist group used Trump's policy of a ban on Muslims in a recruiting video, a video which is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Trump's rhetoric has done more than just radicalize Muslims, however. It's also emboldened racists in the U.S. to start applying Trump's policies prematurely, contributing to a recent spike in hate crimes against Muslims. In some cases Trump's influence is beyond question.
Tearing the country apart, promoting hate crimes and helping ISIS in their recruiting is quite a record of accomplishment for a candidate who hasn't officially claimed the GOP nomination yet.
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