An Open Letter to Donald Trump!

Dear Mr. Donald Trump,

I write to you from a small village they call Global Village. I write to you not because you may not know, but to reflect once more on your anti-Muslim rhetoric, for sometimes one tends to get carried away in the claptrap of enthusiastic audience. And I write to you not as an adherent of this or that religion but as a dweller of this small village, where the only lasting, universal and undisputed denomination is humanity. I have twice visited the US, and found it a great country, inhabited by great people, and I learnt great many things from that country, its system and its people.

I learnt that USA is a great power, not because of its arsenal, to borrow President Obama’s words, or that it has economic hit-men, in the words of John Perkins, but that it has lived by the much-cherished ideals of freedom, equality, fraternity, democracy, pluralism, and tolerance; ideals for which the American people even had to fight the Civil War.

I learnt that America is great not because it belongs to the Irish immigrants, or the Spanish immigrants, other immigrants who settled in the USA over the past several centuries, but that it belongs to every citizen of the USA, irrespective of the country from which he or she or their forefathers, like yours, originally migrated.

I learnt that once the USA was also small: it persecuted the indigenous people, discriminated adherents of other faiths, thrived on slave trade, and life was “nasty, brutish, and short”, but then USA produced great visionaries, who made USA great, not simply by the power of “dream speech” but through great sacrifices during the War of Independence, the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement.

I learnt that today USA is great because no one is discriminated on the basis of his color, creed, culture, religion and ethnicity. There is no department of religious affairs or department of culture: USA is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-lingual society, united by the bond of humanity and American nationality.

But now your fiery speeches, reminiscent of that trigger-happy ever-furious Führer as they are, seem like you intend to return to the past by jeopardizing the future, not only of this beautiful, prosperous, mighty and peaceful country USA but also of the world at large. Your anti-Muslim speeches will win few friends but many enemies. It will not strengthen but weaken the greatness that is America. Banishing or banning the Muslims or any other religious community will reduce mighty USA into a pigmy.

I just want to remind you, if you have forgotten in the frenzy of your obsession to become Mr President, that USA is not a monolith but a mosaic, comprising a myriad of religious communities, ethnic identities, cultural traditions and linguistic heritages. The only indigenous Americans are a dwindling trace of natives, confined to ‘reservations’: everyone else in the USA, from the President to the street vendor, is an immigrant or the descendent of an immigrant.

And before I wind up my letter, let me give you a tip for your journey ahead: the road to Presidency does not demand dirty politics, chauvinistic overtones, hate speeches, Islamophobia, and fanaticism: it requires belief in the ideals of the founding fathers; it needs a manifesto promoting a liberal and tolerant society; it demands positive policy prescriptions tailored to the welfare of the American people; it obliges you to remain polite, composed, balanced, impartial, inclusive, moderate, and in one word AMERICAN!
Best wishes & good health, physical and mental!

Sincerely,
Karam Elahi Sahibzada