Trump fans the flames of hate

WASHINGTON DC Berlin police have yet to even put their hands on the right suspect after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market and left 12 people dead.

But Donald Trump has no doubts about what happened.

Just three hours after Monday’s apparent attack, the US president-elect had branded it the latest outrage in what he sees as a global religious war.

His language was a dramatic departure from how Western leaders generally respond to Islamist extremism but reflected the tone of his campaign.

“Innocent civilians were murdered in the streets as they prepared to celebrate the Christmas holiday,” he declared, in a statement from his office.

“ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad.”

Trump made this case before German police released for lack of evidence a Pakistani asylum-seeker who was arrested after the truck attack.

And he spoke even before Amaq, a jihadist-linked news agency, claimed that the Islamic State group was behind the ramming of the market.

Trump resorted to similar language to condemn the murder, on the same day, of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey by a “radical Islamic terrorist.”

His decision to focus on the presumed religion of the attackers was a deliberately chosen contrast with the policy of outgoing president Barack Obama.

The US leader called Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday to offer his condolences on “the horrific apparent terrorist attack.”

Obama’s administration is fighting extremist groups like the so-called Islamic State, but doing so under the banner of “countering violent extremism.”

He and his generals and diplomats praise the Muslim governments that have joined in the struggle and insist the extremists do not represent a religion.

Trump, however, has a different set of advisers and apparent beliefs: Extremism can only be defeated if we identify it as springing from Islam itself.

During his campaign he proposed a total ban on Muslims travelling to the United States, at least “until we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

sourced:ttrweekly.com