GOP presidential contender produces imagery reminiscent of Nazi Germany
It’s a cardinal rule in politics that, if you want an opinion to be respected, it better not involve a Nazi or Hitler analogy.But there’s really no other analogy that comes close to what Donald Trump has said about Muslims in America this week.
Trump suggested that it might be necessary to create a national database on all known American Muslims in the country. He wouldn’t rule out the need to give out special IDs to Muslims either, saying that, “certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country” once he becomes president.
Yikes. That to me conjures up images of Star of David emblems on the lapels of Jews in Germany. Only in Trump’s America, it might be a crescent moon on Muslims.
Trump also suggested that we may have to close down mosques across the country. He’s not alone in that thinking – 27 percent of Republicans support shutting down ALL mosques in the U.S. Among Trump’s supporters, nearly two out of every five support shutting them down.
Imagine the uproar there’d be if someone had suggested we should have closed down churches following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Yet the movement that purports to promote the idea of religious liberty only seems willing to do so when it’s their preferred belief structure that they’re defending.
Heaven forbid an elected official has to comply with the law when one of her constituents asks her to perform a service that every citizen is entitled to; but when it comes to Muslims, apparently some conservatives believe their places of worship should be shut down entirely.
That, in fact, is the exact opposite of religious liberty – that’s religious tyranny, promoting one belief as valid and dismissing another, and it’s wholly un-American.
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