Ever since Donald Trump proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States earlier this week, the internet has been in shock and up in arms, asking, \u201chow do we respond to such bigotry?\u201d Others have asked, \u201cshould we respond at all? Doesn\u2019t that just feed into Trump\u2019s \u2018shock-jock\u2019 persona?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u00a0is a rogue. And in an era when many politicians have eroded the American faith in their own elected officials, he has garnered a loyal following who seem unshaken even by this latest bout of bombastic absurdity. Conservatives have spoken out against him en masse<\/em>, a relief to many in the center and on the left along with millions of Muslims who already face prejudice and potential harassment on a daily basis in our country \u2013 not to mention Sikhs<\/a>, often mistaken for Muslims due to their dress codes that loosely resemble those of the Taliban.<\/p>\n My own feelings about Trump have been conflicted. I\u2019ve tried to ignore him (don\u2019t feed the trolls). But these days it seems that\u00a0some<\/em> response is absolutely needed, even if it is just to say to my Muslim (as well as Mexican) friends, colleagues, and readers, \u201chey, I\u2019m not standing for this. As an American and as a fellow human being, this kind of xenophobic bigotry is not what my country or my species stands for or is capable of.\u00a0Trump\u2019s statements were unequivocally unacceptable.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump is feeding into a sort of fear-mongering that worries me\u00a0as a Buddhist<\/a> and as an educator. I know that Buddhists are capable of the same baseless over-generalizations about Islam, and I know that there are Buddhists out there in the world today actively discriminating against<\/a> and in fact perhaps on the verge of committing genocide<\/a> against neighboring Muslims.<\/p>\n As I wrote in a long piece responding to the Woolwich, London attacks\u00a0when I lived in England two years ago:<\/p>\n The point I hope to impart you with is that 1) Buddhism<\/a> is not intrinsically peaceful, despite what many superficial analysts suggest, 2) Islam is not intrinsically violent, despite what far too many journalists, particularly bought and paid for by the right wing, will tell you, and that 3) fundamentalism is more of a socio-economic or political issue than it is one of religion.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I expounded upon a particular socio-political instance of Buddhist-led violence<\/a> back in 2013, in fact tying it to similar conditions existing in the Middle East. So I was heartened to see an editorial here at Patheos last week likewise dissecting the socio-political roots of Muslim violence<\/a>\u00a0found in Daesh<\/em> (ISIS).<\/p>\n Returning to the current day and current issue, I wonder if Trump represents the xenophobic edge of an America wrought by deteriorating economic conditions for the majority of it\u2019s own people.<\/p>\n Think about that. Think about Trump and the people who support him in their own \u201cmisguided\u201d manners. A very Buddhist statement on Trump would be\u00a0that: he and\u00a0his supporters are as much worthy of our respect and kindness as the people he vilifies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That said, compassion does not mean rolling over in the face of violence. Nor does it mean forgetting history. And so, a bit of American history from an American Buddhist, George Takei, who as a Japanese-American, lived through one of our most disgraceful periods of American xenophobia, when we chose to imprison over 100,000 people based on nothing but their national heritage*\u00a0during WWII:<\/p>\n