Are Pro-Trump Muslims ‘Stupid Bastards?’ Nuanced Insights into the US Elections 2020
[This article is a follow on from my discussion on LBC Radio (UK) with the presenter, Maajid Nawaz, about the outcome of the US elections. Please listen to the 5-min discussion before reading further: https://youtu.be/XiyTAJR3QEg]
What a way to start an article, with a very odd title. A well-known Muslim activist in America, Rabia Chaudry, who is an advocate of great stature, posted a very disheartened message on her Facebook page when everyone thought President Trump was on a winning streak. This is partly a response to her, as well as my insights into the Presidential elections following my discussion with LBC Radio’s Maajid Nawaz.
Introducing the Greedy, Stupid Muslim Bastards
Rabia is well known for her documentary series about her client, Adnan Syed, who was jailed for the alleged murder of Hei Min Lee in 1999. Since then she has been trying to prove his innocence. Her documentary, ‘Serial’ was very popular and work has been done to get a re-trial for Adnan. I first came across her in 2017 during a scandal that hit the Muslim world when a well-known scholar and preacher, Nouman Ali Khan (NAK), had a photo of his beefy topless body leaked to the social media. The issue of alleged sexual harassment of a few women students came to the fore. I had written a 30-page open letter to Rabia and other Muslim activists and counsellors on how they mishandled the scandal; I also criticised NAK’s followers for their woeful behaviour towards Rabia et al. because of their cult-like adulation of NAK.
The scandal had introduced me to the Muslim activists in the US, such as Rabia Chaudry, who was quite vocal in relation to alleged sexual harassment. A year later, during the Brett Kavanaugh-Christine Blasey Ford hearings, Rabia Chaudry, the MeToo movement and other groups fiercely condemned Brett Kavanaugh and believed that he had attempted to rape Ford. It doesn’t matter which side of the debate you were on in relation to Kavanaugh-Ford; everyone will agree that sexual harassment of women is wrong. This is what the MeToo movement highlighted in 2018. Where is this leading and what has this got to do with the US elections? I hear you ask. I will pull it together, bear with me.
Imagine my puzzlement and incredulity when Rabia described Muslim Trump voters as ‘greedy, stupid bastards.’ She even wished hell and damnation on those Muslims who voted for Trump, and that Trump’s tax cuts would be devoid of ‘barakah’ (blessings). She wrote this at the time when people thought Trump was going to win the election. Why send fire and brimstones on these few Muslim Trump voters? A copy of Rabia Chaudry’s Facebook post is shown below:
I came face to face with Muslim fanatics in 2005 when I stood for the British Parliament, as a Conservative candidate. A fanatical group, the Al-Muhajiroun, had a mugshot of me and other Muslim Parliamentary candidates on their website. They ex-communicated us because they believed that Muslims’ participation in Western politics was ‘haram’ (forbidden). I challenged them to a public debate and even offered for Sky News channel to cover this debate. But they backed down one week before the debate was due to take place. They had no legs to stand on, and there was absolutely no way I was going to allow them to get away in trying to link Islam/Quran with terrorism. Imagine my surprise when I came across Rabia’s Facebook outburst. I will certainly not allow her to get away with an Islamophobic/racist comment like that. However, she is not in the same category as those Muslim fanatics I just mentioned. She is your bog-standard Muslim American…the Muslim version of motherhood and apple pie. There would be no difference between the Joneses and the Chaudrys.
But a peculiar phenomenon that I am witnessing from liberals and the far left (Muslim or otherwise) is rage politics and rationalised racism.
Most Muslims voted Democrat, but a few voted for Trump because they preferred his tax policy, i.e. tax cuts. Rabia lambasted these Muslims and South Asians who voted for this reason. Consider the phrase, ‘Greedy, Stupid Muslim Bastards’. Anything wrong with this phrase? No? Ok, let’s leave aside Muslim Trump voters and look at Black Trump voters. In that same phrase, replace the word ‘Muslim’ with the word ‘Black’. Now read the new phrase. Can you see the inherent racism breaking through and shining with shear resplendence? Whilst we are here, why not replace the word ‘Muslim’ with ‘Jewish’, as there were Jewish Trump voters. Read the new phrase again. You can see antisemitism bursting out as well. This outburst is from the mouth (typing fingers actually) of a formidable lawyer, human rights activist and broadcaster. Her words in that Facebook post are like DNA strands that form the building blocks of rationalised racism. The fact that the word, ‘Muslim’ is used instead of ‘Black’ or ‘Jewish’ somehow rationalises her racism, in this case Islamophobia. Rabia is a Muslim, but that does not make it ok. If she can call out some Muslims using Islamophobic terms, then this justifies and emboldens actual Islamophobes who seek to call out Muslims for other reasons.
The South Asian ethnicity has not been free to roam, they too were targeted in this racist outburst if they voted for Trump. ‘Greedy, Stupid, South Asian and Muslim Bastards’. This is the summary of her Facebook outburst. Re-read this phrase and ask yourself if Donald Trump has ever uttered words like these on fellow Americans. It is true that Trump did target the Muslim Representative Ilhan Omar in some of his campaign rallies and charged her for not being patriotic, and her apparent preference of Yemen to the US (even though she is from Somalia). His attack on Ilhan Omar was unnecessary and he fell into the trap of giving the oxygen of publicity to her and the rest of the far left’s ‘Squad’, that they crave for. Whatever combinations, permutations and iterations of Trumps words against Omar and the squad we can juggle around, they would not spell out the incendiary paraphrase ‘greedy, stupid South Asian (or) Muslim bastards.’ But Trump is the one who has been called out for Islamophobia and even White supremacy despite condemning it a few times, yet Rabia’s racist outburst seems to be acceptable and rationalised. If this is her view of pro-Trump South Asians and Muslims, then one can only imagine what she and the left think of Black Republicans and Jewish Republicans.
Rage, Racism and Chauvinism — The New Narrative of the Far Left
Over the last few months after the tragic murder of George Floyd, I began to notice a new narrative rising in the left/far left, the racism of groupthink and their rage to justify it. I dealt with this in detail in my book, ‘United States of Anger’. It is a narrative that states that your skin colour or religion should determine how you vote. If you are Black or Asian/Latino or Muslim, then you have to vote Democrat. I faced this odd racist narrative in the 1990s when I joined the UK Conservative Party. The Labour Party was seen as a party of the Asians and that I should have joined them. I chose to remain within the Conservative Party and never looked back. When some Muslims or Blacks or Asians or even women decide to fly the nest of the left’s groupthink and join Conservatives/Republicans, they are attacked. The latent racism within the far left do not remain latent anymore. And what has surprised me is the anti-woman chauvinism I witnessed among some feminists, which is very odd if not paradoxical. If women join Conservatives (Trump or no Trump), they are accused of propping up patriarchy and White supremacy. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a case in point. She was an excellent pick by Donald Trump, and I watched her performance during the senate hearings when she was cross examined by Democrat senators. The tactics of the Democrats fell apart like dominoes when Barrett held her ground….even against Kamala Harris, whose precision questioning of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 left him flustered. Barrett is the one who had balls of steel compared to Kavanaugh. The chauvinism is this. Feminists hate her for representing a narrative which their own grandmothers adhered to with pride; of having a large family, maintaining family values and maintaining religious tradition. The feminist author, Lauren Hough, describe Judge Barrett as a ‘handmaid with a car clown vagina’. This phrase means she birthed lots of children. And a laughable extreme version of the left’s narrative about Barrett is that she adopted Black Haitian children in order to instill White supremacy values! True. The adoption of these Black children has obviously nothing to do with giving these kids from poor backgrounds a nice home in the US with a loving, Christian family. Barret gave birth to five children. Instead of giving birth, if she had five abortions, she would have been a superhero of the far left because she would have exercised reproductive freedom. Sad but true. Muslims, Asians, Latinos and Africans should bear in mind that Hough’s attack on Barrett’s multiple births is an attack on our communities too, where we tend to have higher birth rates compared to our White counterparts. The White supremacy terrorist, Brenton Tarrant, who killed 50 Muslims in New Zealand in 2019, expressed his frustration with high Muslim birth rates in his White supremacy trash, ‘The Great Replacement Manifesto’ (which is thankfully no longer available online). Hough and Tarrant represent two extreme sides of the same coin, the far left and the far right. One has used abusive language to prove her point and the other has used a gun to prove his point.
Insight into the US Elections
This long preamble on the far left’s racism and chauvinism leads me nicely to the main part of this article, which is my insights into the US election. It is very short and simple. I congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Kamal Harris. May God guide his presidency and bless America. This is what President Trump should have said. He should have conceded like a man and give his full support to the President-elect by granting him access to the daily briefings, for starters. I agree with LBC Radio’s Maajid Nawaz, when he told me that Trump had every right to pursue a legal course. In principle, he is correct. There is the legal route and there is the ethical/moral route. Yes, Trump has the right to initiate legal action BUT HE DOES NOT HAVE TO. He can take the ethical route and accept that the unity of America surpasses the position of the Presidency. The longer Trump leaves it, the more he will be remembered for his child-like bluster, narcissism, obnoxious behaviour (some psychiatrists told me that he has personality disorder issues) and living in denial instead of his legacies, of which there are many. Furthermore, Trump supporters who treat Trump like a Messianic cult leader, need to come back to reality and accept that the most powerful country in the world will be led by Biden and Harris (eventually Harris, as Biden’s cognitive decline slides further down). I made this point in a Conservative social group. I didn’t get much pushback. Trump supporters also need to have a moment of self-reflection when they claim to be true American patriots. They will recall in 2016 when Trump urged Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton’s computer and find her deleted emails. When an American presidential candidate asks a foreign adversary to hack into the computer of a fellow American who was a former First Lady, THIS IS TREASON. Trump supporters should be true patriots and call out Trump for his incitement to foreign interference.
Both Democrats and Republicans were wrong when they thought their own parties would win by a landslide. Pollsters clearly underestimated Trump in Florida and Ohio…the states which CNN anchors said would be needed to clinch the presidency. It was a bad night for Trump but good for Republicans as they gained more senate seats. Both parties had good news and bad news. I hope Biden is true to his words and starts the process of uniting Americans. In my book, ‘United States of Anger’, I stated that there were a few Democrat policies that I agreed with, such as, universal healthcare, restricting handguns and taking Covid-19 more seriously. But Trump should be remembered for the positive policies he has implemented. Pro-Trump Muslims may have voted for Trump for policies other than tax cuts. Some of these policies are listed below, and President-elect Biden should build on these when he takes office. And I will link these to Rabia’s terminology of ‘Muslim, South Asian greedy bastards…(deserving of) hellfire.’ You can then ascertain who the real bastards are. I won’t ascertain anything as I don’t name-call, I engage in positive discourse with whom I disagree with.
Some Achievements of President Trump
1. Increasing employment among Blacks and Latinos before the Covid pandemic hit.
2. Increasing long term funding for HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).
3. First Step Act to reduce incarcerations of Black prisoners. President Clinton did admit that the 1994 Crime Bill (which caused the increased incarcerations) was a mistake.
4. Helping business owners (including Black business owners) to get on their feet after violent protesters burnt them down.
5. Largest increase of BAME (Black, Asian Minority Ethnic) people within the Republican Party since the 1960s. In my book, I stated that the Republican Party is the home of BAME communities. The creation of the Republican was solely based on the abolition of slavery. It has a proud foundation to fall back on. Democrats do not have this foundation as they have been traditionally been the party of slavery, lynching, KKK and segregation. Trump should have highlighted the GOP’s strong foundation of diversity and inclusion during his campaigns.
6. Increase in women’s employment.
7. Covid Pandemic. It is still unclear how Trump handled the pandemic in its totality, so I am not sure whether this is an achievement. There are two issues that have run in parallel with each other, a success and a failure. The first is his failure to communicate the seriousness of the pandemic and his flirtation with some of the conspiracy theory sceptics about Covid-19, in that the risk-mitigation restrictions was an attack on freedom. Wrong. And I am with the Democrats on this one. Trump could have handled communications better and treat Americans as adults by explaining the risks of the virus and the need for wearing masks and social distancing. The second issue is the imminent success of ‘Operation Warp Speed.’ This is where Trump’s administration spent billions of dollars to help many pharmaceutical companies develop vaccines in a short period of time with purchase agreements and logistics in place. When Trump announced a few months ago that a vaccine would be available by the end of this year, I was sceptical. Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years I knew it takes years to bring a new drug to market from the time the phase 3 trials are completed. I knew Operation Warp Speed tasked many pharmaceutical companies to reduce this time gap, but when Trump said a few months ago about a possible vaccine to market by November, I did not believe him because of his tendencies to exaggerate along with the timing of coinciding with the election. I thought he was trying to make political capital out of this. When Pfizer announced a few days ago the successful results of its phase 3 trial of a candidate vaccine where it is 90% effective, I was very pleased because it meant that millions of patients’ lives would be saved. I then remembered Trump’s promise he made a few months ago; he was right and I was wrong. The purchase agreement which is part of Operation Warp Speed helped Pfizer to make a huge investment in the development of its vaccine with the guarantee that the US Government would purchase 100 million doses amounting to nearly $2 bn. We should give credit where it is due. And when other pharmaceutical companies announce their successes, many more lives will be saved. And the time gap has been reduced by a few years. This would be one of the major legacies of Trump as he exits the presidency, to know that he would be partly responsible for the saving of millions of lives over the next few years which would overshadow the hundreds of thousands of excess deaths that have taken place in the US during 2020 because of Trump’s mismanagement of advice around protection during the pandemic.
That being said, it will be difficult for President-elect Biden to find faults with Operation Warp Speed. Apparently, Biden’s adviser, Dr. Celine Gounder, said that this operation needs to be overhauled. I was dubious and curious about this claim. But when I read an article on this, it turns out that the ‘overhaul’ is not really an overhaul. None of the projects agreed with pharmaceutical companies will be cancelled, but that there would be more spending on testing and tracing. Great. Biden can build on Trump’s success on Operation Warp Speed.
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(Sense check: if voters voted for Trump because of the above seven policies, they are bastards because…?)
8. Israel peace deals: Peace deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia will join soon. Peace is the only way forward to ensure that the lives of Palestinians improve and that tit-for-tat revenge by HAMAS and Israeli military, respectively, are prevented. Too many innocent lives have been lost because of the failure of politicians on both sides. The terrorist group, HAMAS, has let down the Palestinians since it was elected in 2006. It therefore falls upon the other Arab/Muslim nations to step in and work out peace deals with Israel so that peace can finally break out. Israel would also be accountable to these Muslim countries in how they treat Palestinians, e.g. the recent bulldozing some of the Palestinian houses by Israeli authorities would not happen. Before this, the Israeli Government was only accountable to the US. There is a religious angle here, and I mentioned this on radio a few weeks ago. If Saudi Arabia makes peace with Israel, to me it means that the land of The Prophet has reached out to the land of the prophets in Abrahamic brotherhood. What would prophet Abraham say if his descendants started to live in peace instead of fighting? And if some Muslims supported Trump because of the historic and unprecedented peace deals in the Middle East, they are bastards because…..?
It is interesting when Nancy Pelosi was asked about these peace deals, she described them as ‘distractions.’ I am certain if President Hillary Clinton had achieved these peace deals, Pelosi would have nominated her for the Nobel Peace prize.
9. US military Intervention: This issue is very peculiar, mind boggling and unusual from my perspective as a Muslim. The biggest gripe that the Muslim world had with America, was its military interventions around the world, especially the Middle East and Afghanistan. I recall the ‘Stop the War Coalition’ protests in the UK, organised by Socialists and Muslim activists. There was resentment with the US governments for their involvement in wars and causing instabilities wherever they intervened. Trump had battled Pentagon generals on this very issue of military intervention. He did not like interventions and actually started to pull out troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, neither did he initiate a new war. As late as 12th November 2020, there was an announcement of a purge of the pentagon, and that the retired colonel, Douglas McGregor, has been appointed to lead the accelerated withdrawal of troops. This is unprecedented when compared to his predecessors. For some reason this has not featured on the radar of the Muslim media. Muslim activists and even Socialist activists around the world seem to have been silent on this big, joyful elephant in the room. So, if some Muslims supported Trump because of less military intervention in Muslim countries, they are bastards because…?
In 2006 when I delivered a speech at our UK Conservative Party Conference, I openly criticised Madeline Albright, who was President Clinton’s Secretary of State, for stating that the killing of 500,000 Iraqi children was justified (because of ensuing democracy). What label would Rabia Chaudry use to classify her? I could have misused the podium to call Albright a bastard, but in true civil fashion I called her by her title. How would Rabia Chaudry view Trump’s reduced military presence around the world?
10. Uyghur Muslims and the Sanctioning of China: A big Muslim and human rights issue has been the detention of one million Uyghur Muslims in China in internment camps. Both Democrats and Republicans came together and voted for the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act in June. Donald Trump signed this into law and issued economic sanctions against China. Understandably, this wasn’t publicised because the protests post George Floyd’s murder had taken hold around the world. But Muslim campaigners and activists, including Rabia Chaudry, had highlighted the plight of Uyghur Muslims. Here is the problem. At one point, Kamala Harris did not agree with the economic sanctions against China because it would increase consumer prices and affect businesses in California. This objection runs in parallel, quite elegantly, to the ‘greedy tax cut’ objection. They are equivalent analogies. Muslims (and others) who voted for Trump’s tax cuts are called greedy bastards because they were thinking of economic benefits. So, what would Kamala Harris be called when she used the same principle of economic benefit to object to economic sanctions against China?
Both the Democrat senators and Republican senators and Donald Trump should be recognised for this major milestone in the American defence of human rights. And if some Muslims voted for Trump because of his support of Uyghur Muslims in China, they are bastards because…?
11. Life of the Unborn. As a human race, we pride ourselves in living in the 21st Century, because of the advances we made through technology, social progress, economic progress and improvement of human rights. We call it the ‘modern world.’ But in a marvelous and cognitive dissonant parallel, many pride themselves in the support of ‘reproductive rights’ through the killing of unborn babies. This is the big red flag of human rights abuse that has ever been perpetrated against innocent human beings under the guise of women’s rights. Most people on the left are pro-choice for abortion and most on the right are pro-choice for life. However, there are pro-life Democrats, but few in number. So, a big shout-out to ‘Democrats For Life’. One of their Zoom discussion videos, ‘Black Lives Matter — A Whole Life Perspective’ is brilliant (link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2339684373006873&ref=watch_permalink). Unfortunately, that video had only 18 likes at the time of writing this article, a sad reflection of the pro-choice for abortion psyche of the Democrat platform. This issue is not a case of right vs left, it is a case of right vs wrong. Traditionally, Republican presidents have implemented pro-life policies and Democrat presidents less so. I recall that President Clinton once said that abortion should be ‘safe, legal and rare’. I agree with the first part and the last part. President George W. Bush did well to ban partial birth abortions and to also sign the ‘Born Alive Infant Protections Act’ in 2002. He fulfilled his campaign promise during one of the presidential debates with Al Gore, that he wanted to create a culture of life.
However, I understand that President Trump went further than previous Republican presidents to protect the unborn and prevent their killing through reduced federal funding of abortion, and reduction of funding abortions abroad. This particular initiative abroad led Trump’s critics to nickname it the ‘global gag order.’ I welcomed the restrictions on abortion in Alabama, Ohio, Louisiana and abroad (although education on AIDS, HIV, contraception should still continue in poor countries). At the same time unfortunately, abortion was extended in Virginia under Gov. Ralph Northam and in New York under Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Interestingly, Cuomo condemned the death penalty for murderers as morally indefensible…work that one out. Most pro-choice for abortion supporters would have looked at Trump’s defence of the unborn with absolute horror and disgust (I have read enough pro-choice literature and listened to many pro-choice advocates to understand how most of them would think). Pro-life campaigners would have welcomed restrictions in killing babies. President-elect Biden will reverse the progress that Trump had made in saving lives. For that, we can only apologise to thousands, if not millions of future innocent lives that will be erased as they leave this earth with silent screams.
It will take a long time for the Roe vs Wade 1973 to be rescinded (same for the 1967 Abortion Act in the UK). One can only hope that Judge Amy Coney Barrett (and other judges) will do the right thing and protect unborn lives, assuming President Biden keeps her in the Supreme Court. Before laws can be changed, minds need to be changed. Many campaigners advocate for the protection of wildlife, protection of trees, banning of animal cruelty, calling world dictators to account for their human rights abuses; yet the tsunami waves of cognitive dissonance sweep through the minds of these very same campaigners when the topic of abortion arises. There is a massive disconnect somewhere in the synapses and neural pathways. This magnificent contradiction always has puzzled me until I learnt about historical campaigns for women’s rights in America. In the 19th Century, one feminist campaigner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, stated:
“We educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote … What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers?”
This example demonstrates that people can advocate for one form of human right and another form of human wrong at the same time in the cognitive dissonant mind space. In the case of early White American feminists, they did not consider black women, let alone black men, to be deserving of human rights. Blacks were not even second class citizens because they occupied an untouchable space below any class. They were dehumanised. In a striking parallel with abortion, unborn babies/foetuses/embryos/bunch of cells/parasites are dehumanised. That is why it is easy for pro-abortion advocates to become immune to, and to live in denial of mass infanticide.
Dialogue and debate between pro-choice and pro-life groups are the only ways forward. I look back to the time I stood for Parliament in 2005 and regret not focusing on this issue more robustly. But I did engage with feminists on abortion and we have always been polite and civil to each other. I would look to similar positive engagements soon.
Conservatives need to be less judgemental of the left and feminists. And they need to be more patient and engage in positive discourses with them. We can draw inspiration from the debates between the Republican’s Abraham Lincoln and the Democrat’s Stephen Douglas in the 1850s. Lincoln advocated for abolition of slavery. Douglas was very articulate and erudite, and advocated for ‘choice’ (sound familiar?), that different states had a right to choose whether to end slavery or not. We can learn how Lincoln convinced people to humanise Black communities and get rid of slavery once and for all. He lost his life as a result when a Democrat/Confederate murdered him. It took about 100 years for the Democrats to shed its sordid attachment to slavery, racism and segregation. But the same mentality of de-humanising a group of humans (unborn babies) is a vestigial by-product of a by-gone era of human rights abuses. It may take another hundred years for the Democrats to shed their support of mass killing of unborn babies and finally look back to this era (as they look back now to the era of slavery) and ask themselves, ‘how in God’s name did we allow this to happen?’ The defeat of Trump and the election of Biden is a regressive setback to the culture of life. We Conservatives need to remove toxicity of this topic by engaging in positive discourse with whom we disagree with, because millions of future lives are depending on us. HELP IS COMING.
Back to Rabia Chaudry and the ‘Muslim bastards’ issue. Muslims generally have been woefully silent on the injustices of killing unborn babies, and I call out my community for this. I believe that Rabia is pro-life. So, if some Muslims voted for Trump because of his defence of innocent lives, they are bastards because…? Surely there is ‘barakah’ (blessings) in the saving of lives?
Are there any Democrat Muslim Bastards?
I don’t name-call. As I have been critical of Trump in some aspects and supportive of him on other aspects, we can apply the same standard with Biden’s Democrats. Earlier, I stated a few Democrat policies I agree with. There are of course many things I disagree with. I won’t list them all here but will focus on three things.
1. Racism. I alluded to racist elements within the far left earlier in the article and in my book. I won’t rehash them here. But you will recall during the Democrat primaries that Kamala Harris had accused Biden of racism (in the issue of busing) when he supported two pro-segregation senators. Harris laid in to him big time, so much so that the other Democrat contender, Tulsi Gibbard (my favourite Democrat) called out Harris for her attack. This means Harris really believed in what she said when she accused Biden of racism even though she did try to dismiss this during Stephen Corbett’s show after she was selected as Biden’s running mate. Biden also made a racist statement on Charlamagne Da god’s podcast when he said that if Black voters could not decide between Trump and Biden, that they were not Black. The Black rapper, 50 Cent, was also patronised by the White comedian, Chelsea Handler, who reminded him that he was Black and therefore should not support Trump. Under the green field of the Democrats’ diversity, there are landmines of racism buried underneath.
So, when many Muslims and non-Muslims voted for Joe Biden knowing about the racist statements he made, what term would our illustrious advocate, Rabia Chaudry, use to describe these voters thereby withdrawing ‘barakah’ (blessings) and sending them to Hellfire?
2. Sexual Harassment. I used the term ‘cognitive dissonance’ to highlight the contradiction between the Democrats’ formidable positions on civil rights issues, and their support of killing of unborn babies if mothers and fathers so wish. Another marvelous cognitive dissonance I have seen emerge recently within the Democrat mindset is in relation to sexual harassment of women. Their tacit support of Christine Blasey Ford and condemnation of Brett Kavanaugh as a guilty party to attempted rape of Ford, was quite pronounced. And Kamala Harris and other would-be Democrat presidential nominees stated they believed Ford. The MeToo movement campaigned hard in 2018 to highlight the issue of such harassment against women. I supported this movement.
After the Ford-Kavanaugh hearings were over, Democrats forgot about Christine Ford and she still remains in hiding. Come 2020, the Democrats did a 180-degree U-Turn by refusing to support Tara Reade in her allegations of digital rape by Biden in 1993. What is going on here? Millions of Democrats remained silent on this issue apart from a few Socialists who are pro-Bernie Sanders. In my book I capture the short dialogue that I had with a Socialist acquaintance in the US. She, too, was disappointed with the complete silence of Biden supporters. Out of the 75 million people (mostly Democrats) who voted for Biden, only ONE Democrat Biden supporter called herself out for her hypocrisy. Meet Julianna Jana Young. She wrote an article on Medium.com entitled, ‘Voting for Biden Means Owning My Hypocrisy.’ She has been honest about her vote for Biden knowing full well about the allegations against him by Tara Reade. I quote a part of her statement:
“But now, when our candidate is in the hot seat, we’re slinking into the shadows and looking away. It wasn’t too long ago that we were crucifying Brett Kavanaugh. We rallied behind Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and, despite inconsistencies, were disgusted with those who dared say she was making it up. Now, when it’s time to rally behind Tara Reade, we’re either not showing up, or performing some double-speak dance of, ‘We believe women, except when it’s Joe Biden.’”
Julianna is 1 in 75 million. I commend her honesty. For the rest of the 74,999,999 million voters who voted for Biden in silence, knowing about these serious allegations….what type of exotic nomenclature would our esteemed advocate, Rabia Chaudry, use to describe these pro-Biden Muslim voters? I won’t call them bastards. They are just Democrat voters who sacrificed one of their bedrock principles in order to gain power.
3. Life Again. The issue of abortion was dealt with extensively earlier. There were some Muslims and non-Muslims who voted for Trump in order to defend the rights of the unborn. Biden will undo these rights and reverse Trump’s policies. Civil rights will regress, not progress. Many Muslims would have voted for Biden knowing full well that thousands and possibly millions of unborn babies would be killed because it would be easier to do so under the Biden-Harris administration. What wonderful expletives would our human rights advocate (who I believe is pro-life), Rabia Chaudry, use to describe these Muslims? What would the withdrawal of ‘barakah’ (blessings) and the threat of Hellfire look like for these voters because of their support of the killing of innocent lives?
What Type of Muslim Bastard Am I?
You tell me. I am a Conservative and a Republican supporter from across the pond. Am I pro-Trump? Difficult to say. Over the last few years, I had been on radio many times to state categorically that if I was American, I would have voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. During this period, I must have lambasted Donald Trump at least six or seven times claiming that he was not a Conservative or that he was a racist and a White supremacist. Only in the last two months have I been introduced to Trump’s actual policies that have benefitted many people. In my book, ‘United States of Anger’, the reader will see this transition from an anti-Trump position to a neutral position. This neutrality is composed of plusses and minuses of Trump. I would liken Trump to a mad scientist. He may have strokes of genius on good days cocooned inside a shell of narcissism, notoriety and personality disorder. That is why the last sub-chapter in my book is entitled, ‘Donald Trump, the Enigma.’ I have not been able to state in that book or in this article who I would have voted for in 2020 if I was an American citizen. It is very difficult, knowing the pros and cons of both candidates. The identity of my preferred candidate remains unclear to me, but is irrelevant now. The election is over. The litigations are unlikely to help Donald Trump. He should do the right thing and concede graciously to Joe Biden and help support his presidency for the sake of all Americans, and for the sake of the world.
Final word about Rabia Chaudry and name-calling. In my view, racist name-calling is not necessary when good arguments are ready to be deployed. I have deployed them here profusely and elsewhere. And I invite my fellow American-Pakistani sister to engage her legal mind and optimise her legal acumen to respond to a fellow British-Bangladeshi brother across the pond; who has argued convincingly why Muslims and South Asians who voted for Trump are not greedy, stupid bastards.
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Retraction
After writing the above article, I had another conversation with Maajid Nawaz of LBC Radio on 14th November. He did make the valid point that there are still four or five legal routes that Trump could still pursue and win the presidency if the legal outcomes favour him. Although I knew there were parallels with the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, I had forgotten about the fact that Al Gore did pursue the legal route for over a month. And when the courts ruled in favour of Bush, he conceded in December. If Gore can do this and the media outlets accepted this legal challenge from Gore, and did not call out anyone for the presidency until the process was complete; it does beg the question why all media outlets (including Fox News) have called for Biden as President-elect. My article above, assumed that Biden was President-elect and I made my arguments based on this. In the light of my discussion with Nawaz, I will retract the statement I made that Trump should concede to Biden. Let the courts rule one way or the other. Whether you are on the side of Trump or Biden, you should be prepared for any outcome. As for the arguments set out in my article above, they would still stand if Joe Biden does become President.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed are mine only and do not belong to the company I work for or the political party I belong to.
Author Biography
Hasan Ali Imam was born in Bangladesh in 1972 and brought up in the UK. He has engaged in respectful debate and dialogue with those which disagree with him, which culminated in his candidacy for the British Parliament in 2005. He continues to be involved with the UK Conservative Party in his spare time whilst working for a multinational corporation. Hasan has also been involved with the UK Government’s PREVENT counter terrorism strategy as a trainer to public servants on how to prevent young people from venturing into extremism. He also draws on his own experience of attempted recruitment by extremist groups in the 1990s. Hasan has authored three books.
Firstly, ‘United States of Anger — Why Linda Sarsour’s Rage and Far Left Violence Cannot Move Mountains.’ This book is a response to Linda Sarsour (an American Palestinian Socialist activist), and her far left compatriots who supported the violence and rampage that took hold in the US after the tragic killing of George Floyd.
Secondly, ‘BAME — Breaking Through Barriers.’ This book deals with the race space in the UK. It responds to critics who state that ethnic minorities have not progressed due to institutional racism. He tackles the issue head on and invites critics to dialogue and debate. This book was praised by the British Government.
Thirdly, ‘Aisha and Fatima — Ladies of Heavan. A Sunni Response to Shiaism.’ This is specific to the main Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia. The book captures dialogues that Hasan (a Sunni) had with Shia Muslims over the last 20 years.
A fourth book project is under way for publication in 2023, entitled, ‘Why the Far Right are Far Wrong.’ Yes, you guessed it. It includes responses to the Far Right and dialogue with some of its members.
Hasan has also written an article on ‘Medium.com’ to challenge the anti-vaccine narrative from his own Conservative side, including Dr. Simone Gold in the US, and has invited dialogue and debate with anti-vaxxers. He has also engaged in dialogue with and Israeli Jew and an anti-Israeli Muslim on the State of Israel and the importance of Jews, Christians and Muslims to unite under the Abrahamic brotherhood.
