Donald bin Laden

By Trevor Durham on June 24, 2016

On May 4th, 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump won the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States by default. On June 20th, NBC posted an article claiming that Trump “is evoking memories of Hitler”, reflecting what thousands of American citizens have decried over the past year. While connections are clear, Donald Trump does not pose a similar threat to the military dictator, nor is his hatred so one-sided. Donald Trump has begun to lead a new movement, further titled American Reformists, one with more in common than the nearly defunct al-Qaeda than the Third Reich.

Donald Trump, the 70 year old television personality, has a degree in economics and a rich family. The failed tycoon has run for political office multiple times in the past, but with a wave of anti-Islam and hostile immigration speeches, Trump has secured a chance of the 2016 nomination. With the popular comparison to Hitler so in-demand, it’s important to understand the Republican candidates closer counterpart.

Donald Trump is more like Osama bin-Laden than any other leader of the past century.

Donald Trump and Osama bin Laden

Andy Ostroy of the Huffington Post said that “Trump is the perfect vessel to realize bin Laden’s ultimate dream of destroying America,” and he wasn’t wrong. Slate, The New York Times, NBC, and The Intercept each report a dramatic spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes, attacks, and rhetoric since the start of Trump’s campaign. It is through Trump’s speeches supporting a ‘national Muslim database’, a proposal to ban Muslims from the States, identification cards for Muslim Americans, a proposal to shut down American mosques, and the blanket statement “Islam hates us” that he has single-handedly taken undercurrents of biased hate and used them to catapult himself to a seat of power.

In militarizing hatred into real, violent action, he has become a terrorist.

Osama bin Laden, the boogie-man of millennia America regarding overseas terrorism, was a wealthy Saudi Arabia investor and businessman who took anti-West/Soviet mindsets in Afghanistan and the Middle East (following the most outrageous war to ever hit the region) into a zealous, almost nationalistic sect that sought domination, and to ‘make Islam great again’. Osama wanted a return to what he called the ‘golden age of Islam‘ (in the time of Mohammad), and Trump wants a return to the ‘great’ age of America (when whites owned slaves?).

The comparison runs deep. Neither Trump nor Laden were on the front lines of their battles, preferring to make comfortable speeches behind desks, teaching hate to unfranchised youths. Both believe themselves qualified to give lectures and information on things they are unqualified to give- bin Laden was no religious scholar, and Trump is no politician. Even from the beginning, Laden and Trump both sustained themselves on family loans.

We’re even beginning to see the shadows of some of bin Laden’s further threats. In 1996, the US Department of State called Laden “the most significant financial sponsor of Islamic extremist activities in the world.” In March, Trump offered to pay the legal fees of one of his supporters violently attacking a protestor. Small comparison. But all flames begin in sparks.

The differences are scathing- in the favor of the mastermind of the September 11th bombings and countless scores of terrorist attacks. Bin Laden took his wealth and installed himself in the heart of the Afghani war for a decidedly righteous cause- Trump claimed ‘bone spurs’ and dodged the Vietnam draft. Bin Laden received education from those he felt respect from (other imams), met with world leaders, and attempted to inform himself as he worked- Trump has villainized anybody who opposes him and makes scores of public errors daily. Bin Laden was respected by his followers for the risks he took, the strength he felt against insane odds, and his charitable actions that left him destitute- Trump is admired for his lack of censor.

Let us not for one second pretend that this says Bin Laden was a great leader. His ceaseless hatred for the West has killed thousands and ruined governments, his lack of planning tore his operation apart, and he has gone down in history for being one of the cruelest men to live.

I’m just saying that Trump is worse.

 

 

 

The war in Afghanistan saw Soviet forces invading a country unprovoked, slaughtering civilians by the thousands, and disregarding any political or cultural existence. The Islamic world flocked in to try and save their families, to stand for what was right, and to help stabilize the country. Famously, the United States funded rebels and Pakistanis through third parties, who then gave the money to radicals, and brought up the Taliban and, in time, al-Qaeda. Through this war, bin Laden became a figure of charity, bravery, and was idolized throughout the Muslim world. He came in, installed himself on the front lines, and worked.

al-Zarqawi, head of I.S.I.S., and bin Laden, head of al-Qaeda

Shortly before, Trump joined the call of Watergate-era America in insulting the government, avoiding the military service, and standing for the cruel grip of capitalism by enduring bankruptcy after bankruptcy while maintaining the visual of success. He became a symbol for those who favored rich conservatives, and, coincidentally, for misogyny as a result of his television shows.

Bin Laden began to radicalize as Trump capitalized, and inspired Abu Musab al-Zarqawi- the man who would go on to create I.S.I.S. Laden and Zarqawi met as a result of the Afghan war, and Zarqawi sought to imitate his hero. It wasn’t until after the events of September 11ththat Zarqawi sought to out-do al-Qaeda in a way to scare the West away, in the famous video of Nick Berg’s beheading (Zarqawi is the black masked figure who uses the knife himself).

Trump made television shows that were cancelled, businesses that failed, and a handful of botched political runs, but would always remain in the public eye as a ‘rich man’, the pinnacle of capitalism. For in a system where capital is the goal, being rich is the only measure of success.

What happened next in both stories needs no summary. What the future holds is worth considering.

 

 

 

Nathalie Aramburo has been a student of a well-reputed Florida university for the last year. In one of her November classes, she was tasked as dressing like one of her heroes. She chose Malala Yousafzai, an internationally celebrated icon for women’s rights and the advancement of gender reforms in the Middle East. She was faithful to Yousafzai, wearing a hijab and covering her body. Her parents warned her that she would be in danger. She left anyway.

Her drive to class initially included drivers rolling down their windows and directing middle fingers at her in threat. She made a stop for coffee, and a young white man threw a cup of coffee at her car. As she left, two large F-250 trucks chased her Toyota Camry down the road and attempted to crash into her.

In the twenty minutes she spent getting to class, she was a victim of hate crimes and terrorism for representing a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She experienced fear on American soil and had her life threatened by white men in trucks, a civilian at risk for supporting a world religion.

Terrorism is not a foreign import.

 

 

 

Bin Laden’s speech gave rise to the nationalistic rise of improper ‘jihad’ (a word Americans don’t understand) and Islamification of terrorism, the focus of Kundnani’s powerful book The Muslims are Coming! (read this before you consider the implications of Islamophobia, the tenant of the non-fiction work). Trump’s speech has given rise to anti-Islam, anti-Hispanic, and anti-queer thoughts that gave America its worst mass shooting in history. Trump doesn’t own a religious ideology, so what army will he have?

Trump supporters at a rally

Donald Trump leads the neo-conservatives, the disenfranchised white vote who hearkens back to old days where privilege afforded more, and the enemies are of other belief or skin, not the bankers or rich who stole their livelihood.

These American Reformists, wanting to reform America to an older time of white supremacy, are the largest threat to American security. Their obsessive focus on the second amendment, their militarization (the DHS surveyed and found that sovereign American citizens are the highest perceived terrorist threat), and their violence towards their enemies make white, conservative America a threat to the world.

Trump in a CNN interview

No longer is Trump a joke candidate we can ignore. He has incited terrorist action against Muslims, Mexicans, Hispanics, and the LGBTQ+ community that is unlike anything this country has ever seen. Should an American al-Zarqawi appear (the Westboro Baptist church? The Bundy family? The Aryan nations, KKK, etc.?), he will have given the foundation and ideals to an American-born I.S.I.S., whose Koran is the Constitution, whose Mecca is Washington D.C., and who righteously believe that America is the greatest nation-state in the world. Texas gun-owners have threatened action, ministers have become increasingly political, and hate crimes are at an incredible high.

Bin Laden once said that the “hostility that America continues to express against the Muslim people has given rise to feelings of animosity on the part of Muslims against America and against the West in general.” Trump is taking the sentiment and reversing it to further detriment the world.

The United States is now, by definition, a war zone. We are in an area marked by extreme violence, and even our children are at risk. We have waged war across the continent, and should anybody pose an imaginary threat, we have political candidates sure to prematurely declare war. Is it too hard to imagine an American sovereign citizen attacking a Russian capital, perhaps China or the Middle East, and claiming it for nationalistic purposes? History will repeat, and they will confuse terrorism for our government’s warfare. Cue in a war where nobody wins.

 

 

 

Abdullah Aljarboa moved to the United States in the spring of 2016 to get his education in business and economics. He sat with me to watch the Republican debates with fear, seeing his faith bashed in front of millions of Americans. “That’s not Islam,” he told me one evening, discussing the horrible history in Syria. He was worried.

Aljarboa is well-versed on the problems facing the Middle East, growing up in Saudi Arabia. He has made Hajj twice (he has the means, and feels it is a spiritual requirement- he has invited me to join him, paying my expenses), learned about the horrors facing Syria in the north, and tried to remain secular as a practicing Muslim. He never once touched alcohol (believing this hadith to be very important, as many Muslims do), invited me to join his prayers, and was one of the happiest roommates I’ve ever had. His laugh was contagious, and he was always willing to include me with his friends.

Aljarboa took me with him to mosque every Friday, where the imam gave a weekly sermon preaching love, acceptance, and brotherhood in these tough times. The imam warned of the community’s hate, the dramatic rise in hate crimes, and that they must remain smiling, loving, and worthy of Allah.

The mosque was once the site of a hate crime, back in 2002, but the local community still hasn’t grown past that. Hate crimes in Florida are at an all-time high, and Muslim citizens are at the epicenter. The mosque warned its denizens, and gave a light of hope for their future.

Love in the face of hate.

 

 

 

Andy Hallinan, a proclaimed Trump voter, denies Muslim’s service at his Florida gun-store

We now have political candidates running on slogans such as “Make America White Again.” A study from the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University showed that anti-Muslim hate crimes increased in 2015 by almost 200% since September 11th, 2001 (correlation may not be causation but it certainly does help that the assailants are outspoken Trump supporters). The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will soon release a report showing that anti-Muslim crimes have risen by around 500% in the last two years.

The American Reformist’s feel as though the United States is being threatened with Sharia law, and play with the paranoia in the hearts of their families. The militarization of our citizens is not only dangerous, but actively damaging the federal system necessary for a functioning society.

Trump is profiting and delighting in the fervor and hatred he is creating. This man is a coward, a failure in everything he does, and is leading a movement that threatens the world order.

There is no call to action in this post. There is nothing to do with his uneducated followers, ones who throw coffee, start riots, and arm themselves in order to overthrow the government if they don’t get their way. Perhaps this will serve as a warning, to educate the people, to inform the people, and to find ways to remove hatred in upcoming generations. This man will go down in history with Stalin, Mao, and Laden; but maybe, as he should, the failed version.

 

Osama bin Laden was one of the worst terrorists to ever live. Donald Trump is waiting patiently in his shoes to show us that we haven’t seen anything yet.

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