Trump is Trying To Start a Religious War

Trump Is Trying To Create Religious Conflict

Trump is Trying To Start a Religious War
Israeli Defense Forces is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The Decision To Officially Name Jerusalem the Capital of Israel is Designed to Create Muslim Violence

President Trump has a problem. A central tenet of many of his policies requires Muslim violence. In order for him to justify his travel ban, attacks against Muslim populations, aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East, elimination of the Iran Nuclear Deal, the creation of a new spy network, to name a few, need him to prove that they are necessary.

Trump Is Trying To Create Religious Conflict [/tweetthis]

That is why he has engaged in false stories: that Muslims were cheering after 9/11, that the attacks in San Bernardino was part of an elaborate plot, to promoting false videos of Muslim violence in Europe, to blaming European attacks on refugee populations, the list goes on. So if it is not going to happen naturally it seems like he will have the create it himself.

That legitimately could be why he declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. This decision was nearly universally criticized and many leaders tried to convince him not to do it. Rarely do you get the European Union, Saudi Arabia, the Pope, Palestine, Turkey, and Christian leaders to agree on any issue. But all of them condemned the decision and was one of the reasons was that it would cause religious violence in the region and destabilize any chance of a peace plan between Israel and Palestine.

The decision means that the 100,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem with no real citizenship and subsequent rights have no faith that they will be represented in the future. Many experts have said that this will completely destroy the possibility of a two-state solution. When diplomatic efforts are seen as fruitless, violence becomes the tool for creating change.

This will also have directed anger toward the United States. The U.S. State Department warned President Trump to not make the decision because it would put embassies at risk for violence.

But think of the visuals. Muslims burning American flags, waving anti-American signs, and in front of embassies, which are legally American soil. It is hard not to imagine that those images would soon find their way into Trump’s speeches and social media accounts to justify all of the actions he has pledged, both in his campaign and his presidency.

When Trump announced his decision, he claimed that this would actually lead to peace. But the brokering of peace between two conflicting groups require compromise on both sides. Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, argued that peace cannot be achieved if the United States seems to be entirely favoring one side over the other. In fact, it may cause Palestine to completely reject any peace process that includes the United States, in a belief they are prejudiced to Israel in their decisions.

Some experts have stated that the decision has come from an opportunity to appease Evangelical Christians and powerful donors that have been demanding a more hardline stance toward Palestine from the Trump administration. This may be true, but the creation of tension in an already volatile situation is both dangerous and irresponsible. It was bad enough to put Jared Kushner, a man with no foreign policy or Middle East experience in charge of brokering the peace process. The fact that nothing happened Trump seems to be blaming the parties, rather than the fact that he did not do an adequate job of attempting to create it.

When violence occurs there is never a winner. Violence creates a perpetuating cycle of death and misery for all involved. We should not applaud any action that creates danger, especially when it is unnecessary. Turkish Prime Minister Binary Yildirim stated that the decision makes the problems in the Middle East “unresolvable.” We hope that this is not the case and that other nations and leaders will be able to help stave off conflict. Because, at this point, it seems like our president has decided to not give peace a chance.

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