Instilling fear in Americans

Following the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to ban entry of all Muslims to the United States my non-Muslim mother-in-law and stepdaughter expressed their fears over my safety when I come to the United States.
It was particularly alarming to me since my husband’s family generally shrugs off anti-Muslim sentiment in the media as ignorant babble. But with Trump’s obscene bigoted rhetoric the climate appears to have suddenly changed in the United States.
Two generations removed from Joseph McCarthy’s soul-destroying anti-communist witch-hunt, it looks like the US is spiraling toward hysteria in a similar fashion against Muslims. We have seen this kind of mood before in 1930s Europe and we now appear to be headed toward fascism.
My mother-in-law has had a particularly rough go of it from unsympathetic friends. People she has known for years and had lunches with every day have turned their conversations at the table to anti-Muslim sentiment and support for Trump. When she reminds her friends that her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter are Muslim she is met with silence and blank stares.
To coin a new phrase, casual bigoted conversations, whether public or private, is the “new normal.”
Trump’s speeches are designed to instill fear among Americans. He expertly taps into the uncertain feelings many Americans have over their country’s future, how non-Muslim and so-called radical Islamist terrorism will affect them and when will the next sad sack unleash his rage in a shooting rampage. Trump doesn’t have answers. But by projecting their rage and fears in fiery, blunt speeches he gains new converts.
The unintended consequences of Trump’s rhetoric and the news media’s endless speculation — in the absence of facts — about the true nature of Islam and what separates law-abiding Muslims from a terrorists is twofold: It will fuel Daesh’s hatred of the West and encourage more attacks on western soils. And it will encourage non-Muslim domestic terrorists to seek revenge, creating an endless cycle of bloody violence.
Of course, Daesh wants a war of civilizations and nothing will further its agenda better than vigilantes in the West killing innocent Muslims and the government passing restrictive laws. Daesh will find a way to strike back. President Obama described terrorism as having “evolved” into a new phase. And if Americans succumb to their fears with violence, then they will help Daesh with its evolution.
This also will give western hate groups and the radical right ammunition to continue their anti-refugee campaign to further stoke fears about immigration. It’s a relief that the US Department of Justice has indicated that it will investigate hate speech. It’s been clear that hate groups have long abused their constitutional right to free speech by inciting hatred, which leads to violence. Individuals abusing such constitutional protections consistently and over a long period abdicate those rights.
The US has always had a tendency toward isolationism as evidenced in its late entry into both world wars. And when it has designs to curb communism in Vietnam or bringing democracy to Iraq its efforts have ended in disaster.
America’s true strength is not in its efforts to reclaim its glory of the “Good War” or battling foreign threats by attacking innocent people on their home ground. Its strengths lie in adhering to the principles of its constitution that guarantees the right to freedom of religion, and yes, freedom of speech that does not incite violence and the right to full protection under fair and equitable laws.
These rights serve as a beacon for democracy. If America wants to be great again, which seems to be the goal of every Republican presidential candidate, then there is no room for fascist ideology that is worming its way into the American psyche.