Brussels attacks to affect US Muslims tremendously: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Naseer al-Omari, a writer and political commentator in New York, to discuss the anti-Muslim comments made by Republican presidential candidates in response to the deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Earlier, Press TV spoke to the executive director of CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) who also condemned the vitriol that’s been coming out from Trump, from Kasich, from Ted Cruz when it comes to Muslims and Islam as a whole. Specifically when you put it within the context of the recent attacks in Brussels, how do you interpret it?

Omari: Well, Muslims in the United States are genuinely saddened by these attacks. The Muslims in the United States have proven since their communities started in the United States that they are peace-loving people. We do not have incidents of American Muslims engaging in terrorism. We do have converts; we do have people who came from overseas with visas and brought with them this terrorist ideology.

For the most part, American Muslims are actually stunned every time something like this happens. Mosques in the United States are peaceful and open to all people. This really affects Muslims tremendously in the United States, especially with the likes of Donald Trump wanting to blame Muslims for what happens overseas and what happens globally.

Press TV: Well, are you at all concerned that Donald Trump and other contenders for the nomination, either for the Republicans or Democrats, are using Muslims and Islam as a way to get those votes, to get that popular support of the people by throwing Islam under the bus, and this is being done through misinformation as well, like for example talking about Muslim neighborhoods, there are no Muslim neighborhoods in the US?

Omari: That is true. Muslims are in every neighborhood and in every major institution in the United States including the US military and the US security service.

It is amazing to see how Donald Trump is not only victimizing using Muslims as a way to gain political support but he is actually undermining American democracy. Muslims are very well integrated in the United States like many, many other minorities. What he is doing is really undermining the United States, undermining the tolerance that exists in the United States. I am not surprised that even Republicans do not feel comfortable with these types of comments.

Press TV: Why is it that whenever terrorism is spoken of or Islam is or Muslims are linked to terrorism, why is it that the US role, US policies within the Middle East, within the Muslim world, is not talked of; the root causes are usually skimmed over as though it is Islam that is inherently violent and perpetuates terrorist ideologies?   

Omari: Yes, this is the elephant in the room in the United States. Every time you bring up the American support to dictators in the Middle East, every time you point out the fact that the beginning of al-Qaeda-like groups, today ISIS (Daesh) before it was al-Qaeda, was actually the collaboration of the Americans with the Saudis to defeat the Soviet Union, so they used them for political and military purposes and now as they try to use them in Syria.

The relationship between the United States and the Saudi government is something that we keep bringing up. The Saudi royal family has to be held responsible for what is being taught, what they are supporting overseas, the groups; how they are spreading using the oil money, how they are spreading terrorism in the region and around the world.

This is the elephant in the room. Everybody talks about terrorism but you do not hear anybody connecting the Saudi royal family and the Wahhabi sect of Islam to global terrorism that unfortunately we see unfolding all over the place. 

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