Trump's call
Last Sunday in Riyadh, the US President had called upon the leaders of as many as 55 Muslim majority countries, present at the Arab Islamic American Summit, to take the lead in stamping out extremism without waiting for American power to crush these forces. The concept is nothing new; many in the Muslim countries have been calling upon their silent majority to stand up to the pernicious phenomenon which had nothing to do with Islam. And we also believe that, if force was the only riposte to extremism, the US would not still be engaged outside its national border grappling with it.
However, one has to juxtapose Mr Trump's speech with his long-held opinion about Muslims and Islam, and the fact that at one time not long ago he had suggested that all Muslims be barred from entering the US till the US could sort out "what's going on" and later "ordered" ban on travel, initially from seven Muslim-majority countries. Nevertheless, while we welcome the US President's commitment to root out extremism we cannot but offer a few opinions of our own in this regard.
To talk about purging a phenomenon without reflecting on the drivers of the phenomenon is ridiculous. Regrettably, there was no mention in Trump's 33-minute homily of the causative factors that have spawned extremism, and which, unfortunately, most of the Muslim countries are having to endure in varying degrees of intensity. If he had, he would have had to confront the truth that his country's policy, in the Middle East in particular, especially in Iraq, has had much to do with the spike of terrorism and extremism around the world.
It is surprising and disappointing too that the Palestinian issue has been successfully sidelined. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that except for King Abdullah's remarks, there was no mention of Palestine and Palestinian rights in the Summit Declaration, a summit attended by a very large number of leaders from Muslim countries?
We are also alarmed by the attempt to isolate Iran, a policy that will be deleterious to the interest of the Muslim world. The Shia-Sunni schism appears to have been formally established through this meeting and acquiesced by all the other participants. That is indeed disappointing.
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