• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy

Democracy Chronicles

US Elections from Afro-Muslim Perspective: Shame and Fear

by Abdirahman Mohamed Dirye - September 3, 2016

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Afro-Muslim Perspective

Watching the American election and Hollywood movies like the recent “London Has Fallen” from afar, Afro-Muslims like myself notice that the focus on Muslims as terrorists is constant and often times the faith itself is questioned. Now, a guy by the name of Donald Trump has come out of nowhere and jumped the Republican Party’s bandwagon winning the GOP primary elections and leaving Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson, and Jeb Bush, the son of one former president and the brother of another, in the dust. His participation in the elections has elicited mixed reactions from Afro-Muslims.

Is American democracy unlike any other? Is it no longer regulated by powerful lobbyists or monopolized by particular family dynasties?

Trump’s GOP landslide victory has proved wrong the 8-year-old promise of Obama’s presidency to defuse racial tensions and revealed it as an aberration. US elections, it seems, have a vulnerability whereby reckless folks can declare their candidacy without any prior examination of their mental fitness and take part in a political game with no laws.

Afro-Muslim PerspectiveThat the Republican frontrunner has fictionalized, satirized, trivialized, and devalued US elections, which once had global respect, worries Afro-Muslims. The election has fed the continuation of stereotypes like “African Americans are lazy”, an insult to Africans by extension. “What does he say to Africans? Genetically hungry?” remarked a fellow African.

Donald’s foul tongue sends a chilling message to Africa undoing Obama’s short-lived legacy on the continent. We came to that a man with African ancestry can rule the ‘greatest’ country on earth. In return, it boosted Africans’ image in general. But this lengthy election campaign sounds much like a mediocre soap opera. By now many have turned off the TV or changed the channel to avoid the spectacle of a ‘ex-great’ America, once known for inventing many useful devices that enabled humanity to live better.

Worrying Precedent

Adolf Hitler’s election winning tactics to take power are not fully documented but the prominent use of his prejudice against Jews and his call to get rid of all Jews, disabled, and homosexuals in Germany to ‘purify’ German race was central. 71 years later, the same tragedy upon different group of people is imminent.

Donald has similarly found American voters ‘soft spot’ of freaking out from the mere mention of Islam, fed by media coverage of ISIS brutality, and he has pressed this soft spot to draconian levels of a total ban Muslims entering the US. Trump ally Newt Gingrich added that the US should “deport Muslims who believe in sharia law”. Campaigning on themes like “Mexicans are rapists” and “Muslims are terrorists” is a stark reminder of Hitler’s venomous language to vilify Jews as “vermin” and other anti-Semitic remarks. Will America be better off sans of its minority Muslims?

The American election taking more time than necessary, the ugliness of the electoral college, and a myriad of other issues have made the electoral process look chaotic. Watching this year’s spectacle has divided and alienated Afro-Muslims further and earned animosity for Americans. The Donald is virtually out of control. He utters something before thinking about it and, in the case of presidency, he will ‘leap before he look’.

Non-Americans have to respect whomever Americans vote for but this election has reminded the world that American ‘sophisticated’ electability system can malfunction and of how vulnerable it is to people who have either the twisted faith of Osama or the paranoia of Hitler. US Muslims numerically, politically, and economically are nobody but Donald can be a threat to America itself. Forget about Muslims. Following the televised debates so far, about personal attacks and subverting entire communities rather than of speaking substance and leadership, Afro-Muslims are sitting on the fence whether America deserves to call itself ‘great’. This election solemnly reaffirmed one thing just one thing to the outside world: America suffers from not just an economic downturn but also of a deviation from its once respected American mores.

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Africa, African-American Voting Rights, Mexico, Racism and Prejudice, Worldwide

About Abdirahman Mohamed Dirye

Abdirahman Mohamed Dirye is a Somaliland activist who is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a Senior Editor at Democracy Chronicles and a member of Anti-Corruption International (ACI). Checkout the rest of our international team of authors as well. Together, they help cover free and fair elections on every continent with a focus on election reform in the United States.

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home | DC AUTHORS | US Elections from Afro-Muslim Perspective: Shame and Fear

Primary Sidebar

Advertise button

The Christian Evangelical Church

By Jack Jones January 22, 2023

I am not against Big Business having a voice, just not all the voices, and especially not an impersonator pretending to speak for God.

No One In Monterey County Is Good Enough To Serve In Legislature

By Joe Mathews January 9, 2023

California’s “democratic reforms” have left a place as… [key] as Monterey County without any state representation from one of its own.

democracy chronicles newsletter

DC AUTHORS

In America, the Joe-mocracy Rules

By Joe Mathews December 27, 2022

A republic? A democracy? No, our country is an avuncular autocracy run by old guys named joe.

Property Rights, Indiana-Style

By Andrew Straw December 24, 2022

Indiana’s justices have replaced constitutional property rights with ad hominem politics. Replacing them starts with better governors.

To The American Oligarchs: Lay Off Us

By Jack Jones December 21, 2022

No matter how many jobs are ruthlessly pulled out from under us, we are still going to do what it takes to put food on the table.

Indiana’s Irrational Ballot Access System

By Andrew Straw December 4, 2022

Opposing the potential 2024 retention of the Chief Justice Loretta Rush will be key to preventing disability discrimination bad blood in Indiana courts.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden’s Loan Forgiveness program

By Jack Jones November 24, 2022

What is unlawful is the Texas federal judge’s decision to strike down President Biden’s loan forgiveness program, not the program itself.

DeSantis Battles Trump in Florida Steel Cage Match

By Steve Schneider November 20, 2022

We take you now to the much-anticipated DeSantis-Trump steel cage match, in which “DeSanctimonious” has promised to “kick Trump’s ass.”

Why Gambling Can’t Really Lose In California

By Joe Mathews November 2, 2022

When state voters approved an expansion of casino gaming, gaming interests assured us that gambling here would be governed by strict limits.

MORE FROM OUR AUTHORS

VISIT OUR POLITICAL ART SECTION:

dc political art

DEMOCRACY CULTURE

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

January 26, 2023

The workshop assisted Girl Scouts in grades K–10 in earning their Democracy Badge through learning activities on democracy.

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

January 26, 2023

Sharing personal experiences and pairing them with facts reduces political dehumanization and increases political tolerance.

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

January 7, 2023

A review of 2020 Household Pulse Survey data reveals that as an election nears, people in [America] report more depression and anxiety.

Key Iran Labor Sectors Launch Major Strikes

Charlie Hebdo Caricatures Iran’s Mullahs

January 7, 2023

The satirical weekly is publishing a special issue on Wednesday, January 4, mocking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in support of the protests…

First Impressions Are Strongly Influenced By Political Partisanship

First Impressions Are Strongly Influenced By Political Partisanship

December 22, 2022

How we perceive strangers or the impressions we have about them, particularly their faces, is influenced by political partisanship.

MORE CULTURE

VISIT OUR US DEMOCRACY SECTION:

American Democracy