Trumps Comments on the Orlando Mass Shooting. Blog 3

David Ignatius' opinion titled, "Trump's Islamophobia Helps to Motivate the Islamic State", was published by the Washington Post on June 13th 2016.  His post explains how after the Orlando mass shooting on June 12th Donald Trump released a statement saying that essentially "I told you so" and suggested that President Obama resign because he was unable to effectively tackle the problem of jihadist terrorism. I agree with the author's ridicule of Trump in this situation and his claim that Trumps islamaphobia does nothing to help the United States combat the Islamic State and actually makes the situation worse.

Ignatius uses reliable sources such as counter terrorism experts to assert that ISIS is structurally crumbling and countries in the Middle East are slowly escaping their control and refusing to cooperate with them. However, according the Ignatius these experts claim that the Islamic State is still propelled by "islamophobia". I agree that fearing and isolating people just because of their religion is both a naive and counterproductive approach to tackling the problem of terrorism. When politicians such as Trump, who supposedly represent the opinion of the general population, say that we should ban all immigration from the Middle East, it only adds fuel to the fire. As Ignatius states, Trumps xenophobia only reinforces the Islamic Jihadists claims that the intolerant West needs to be destroyed.

However, Ignatius also claims that Trump's ridiculous comments will cause the entire Muslim community to take action as a group. I do not agree with the author on this point because I think he is hypocritical in attributing the same violence of Islamic extremists to the entire Muslim community. America has treated minorities poorly in the past, whether it be racial, religious or gender based. Never has a minority group violently acted out against our country so to claim that Muslims will because of the actions of terrorists who practice the same religion is both unfounded and hypocritical.

Nevertheless the author is correct in claiming that Trumps statements only further alienate the Muslim community and hinder progress with regards to finding a solution to counter terrorism.