Recently, in light of ISIS Terror attacks in Paris, Beirut and other cities across Asia, Europe and Northern Africa, Donald Trump has made some very questionable suggestions on how to deal with the terrorism problem and keep it from reaching the United States. Shockingly, Trump told Yahoo News that he would consider requiring Muslim-Americans to register with a government database, or worse, mandating that they carry special identification cards that note their faith. Trump went even further to go and say that if things got really bad, he would consider shutting down all American Mosques. It is extremely surprising to see the GOP frontrunner for the 2016 election make such discriminatory comments about a large population of Muslim-American Citizens. How is it fair for the millions of law abiding Islamic Citizens to be forced to register and carry certain identification and barred from practicing their religion solely due to the actions of unconnected extremists thousands of miles away? Many have made the connection between Trump's ideas to have all Muslims carry special identification with that of Nazi Germany, who forced Jews to wear identification as part of the attempt to systematically segregate them. First, Trump targeted Latino minorities as part of his campaign, and now with his questioning of Muslims, it is clear that he has unjustified racial prejudice against minority groups in the United States.
Questions: Do Trump’s comments hold any merit whatsoever? Should Presidential candidates be held to higher standards in terms of free speech and discrimination of minority groups? What should be done on the Homefront to protect against terrorism?
Our policies towards terrorism on both the foreign, but especially, the domestic front lack any sensibility; Donald Trump's comments completely idiotic. There are many policy changes outside of human rights violations and pure racism that would be immensely more effective. For example, people on the governments terrorist watch and no fly list ( we are talking people who are not allowed to fly on planes because there is a seriously considered threat that they blow it up and kill a hundred passengers) have full access to buy arms at any local gun shop. Instead of implementing legislation to keep potential terrorists from buying guns it is suggested that we take away churches and strip people of their human rights.
ReplyDeleteIs it really all that surprising that Trump is making these comments? Remember that many Americans, including 43% of Americans, think Obama is a Muslim.
ReplyDeletehttp://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/253515-poll-43-percent-of-republicans-believe-obama-is-a-muslim
Ignorance is bliss (or a danger to the civilized world).
Trump's comments are extremely ignorant and are purely racist. His ideas will not be effective enough to eliminate the threats of terrorists, but it will however restrict people's freedom of speech. Although he might not be as cruel and destructive as Hitler, he is containing the same mindset, that restricting speech and religion will help solve conflicts, which is not neccesarlily true. Trump should be thinking about protection in terms of restricting gun sales and other factors that have played a role in mass shootings. People's mental health should be tested and questioned rather than their religion.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments are insensitive and do not hold any merit. It is concerning that Trump has so many supporters because his claims and ideas are blatantly discriminatory. I think presidential candidates should be held to a high standard of free speech because they are running to control an entire country that includes many minority groups. There should be strict security measures to protect against terrorism, but it is stripping people of their rights to take away American Mosques and requiring Muslims to carry identification cards.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments represent the extremes of American ideology. He appeals to the very conservative aspect of American politics and through his outrageous comments, is winning the polls in various republican states. Presidential candidates are usually opposed to alienating any potential voters so discrimination when attempting to win an election has never been a major problem. However his right to freedom of expression still stands and not much can be done about that. On the Homefront, I do not believe that registration or interment camps are the answer. I do believe that we should extend the powers of the federal government to monitor social media and communications. Isis is recruiting in America mainly through the Internet and we need to broaden the powers of the federal government to stop this.
ReplyDeleteNo, there should be absolutely no database to register Muslims. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment's Freedom of Religion. Besides, the millions of Muslims living in America haven't committed any terrorist attacks, the majority of domestic terrorism (mass shootings) have been done by white Christians. Is Trump willing to register them in a database? However, I don't think that he should be limited in his freedom of speech. He is a Presidential candidate, he is putting his ideas forth, and the only limit to his speech should be when people decide he's a joke and stop listening to him. But you can't Stump the Trump, so his poll numbers keep on rising. We shouldn't do anything to protect against domestic terrorism because there isn't any.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments do not hold any merit at all and are completely racist. I believe he only has supporters because he is a confident speaker and is assertive with his ideas. However, his ideas are not coherent nor logical. I think presidential candidates should be held to a higher standard in terms of free speech and discrimination because they are trying to appeal to a majority of the nation and they may or may not be the future leader of the US. In order to protect the US from terrorism, the government definitely needs to heighten homeland security.
ReplyDeleteTrumps comments are clearly ludicrous. However, it doesn't matter if candidates SHOULD be held to a standard of perfection when it comes to what they say, because they all ARE wether they like it or not. The homefront issue is a lot more complicated, because some solutions offered, such as more police or armed citizens are not looked at favorably by the public. So, unfortunatley we really can't defend against homeland terrorism too well.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Donald Trump's comments are both quite ignorant and imbecilic as is par for the course for him, hold no value or merit whatsoever. The blatantly ridiculous nature of his claims only accentuates that he has no idea about what he's even talking about. His statements regarding the accusation of Muslim citizens demonstrate that he is clearly bigoted against them and their own religion. His televised statements will, unfortunately, only be used to fan the flames of ISIS's anti-American campaigns. While understand and the reasoning behind the need to monitor citizens that you let into the country, Trump simply takes it way too far and appears to be more thoughtless and inconsiderate.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments do not only hold no merit, but are appallingly prejudice for a presidential candidate frontrunner. Presidential candidates should be held accountable for higher standards especially in speech and discrimination, but his support indicates that America still remains very much prejudice and intolerant of other people and cultures. If America truly wants to fight terrorism, we should establish more precautionary measures that work instead of confronting regular citizens based solely on their religion.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments furthermore prove that he should not be taken seriously as a candidate, His views on Muslims and Latinos alike are against the foundations that the United States was created on: freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He endangers the legacy of the United States as a place of liberty and freedom, and instead is legitemately considering installing identification cards that have been seen in Apartheid South Africa, Holocaust Germany, and the Arab-Israeli conflict in Israeli today.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Trump's comments hold no merit and are completely disgusting, there are people in America that agree with him and support him, showing how his comments actually do have merit in the minds of many of people. He would not be a frontrunner in the Republican candidacy if people didn't like what he was saying. So even though most of us here in Burlingame can easily see the flaws and racism in his comments, many people are not so fortunate and actually believe that Trump is a good candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. To me, the fact that Trump is a very popular candidate should not be just thrown to the side; we as a nation should be incredibly worried that there are people who actually support the racist opinions. It seems to be a given that presidential candidates hold themselves to a higher standard than most people as they are in the public's eye a majority of time. However, since Trump has not done this and is still very popular, I beginning to believe that people are getting tired of the white lies and fake fronts politicians are using and just want the brutal truth. Even if rude, at least Trump is completely open about his ideas, which cannot be said for many other candidates. However, I completely disagree with Trump's words, especially in this incident. There are much better actions to be taken than reverting to Nazi-like surveillance. Homeland already does a lot of background checks and vetting before refugees are let in to the country, the security at airports and other places is superb, there is little more to be done in my mind. I am not an expert on these situations and, like most of the public, am unaware of all the surveillance and security around us. I think I'd rather stay in the dark in the government's methods of keeping our country safe.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump's remarks have no merit whatsoever. Trump has a pattern of stating his very discriminatory beliefs and this new statement is no exception. I respect his strong efforts to protect American people, but segregating and ostracizing Muslim-Americans is not the way to do it.
ReplyDeleteI think that whatever a Presidential candidate chooses to say regarding discrimination and race is fair game to be used against them when election time rolls around. And, with the statements Trump has made about race and different minority groups, he should be no threat to the opposing candidates... or that's how it should be. Everyone has the right to say what ever they want, and Trump is exercising this right to the Nth degree. However, he is then subject to negative attention from the media, his other candidates, and American people.
Basically what Donald Trump is suggesting is to violate our first amendment right. As Malia mentioned above, in Burlingame we make fun of him, but we should seriously be worried that he could be running our country. His racist views are clearly not seen by everyone, as he his leading the republican candidates. Trump does have the right to say what he wants to an extent, but his comments can and should be used against him come election time.
ReplyDeleteTrump's comments don't hold much merit as it is obvious he is trying to appeal to many Americans by making these statements. Presidential candidates should not be held to higher terms in regards to free speech and discrimination with minority groups because it is their right to say what they want. It is ultimately up to the people of the United States of America to decide who they agree with and who they want to vote for. To protect terrorism, The US should involve itself as little in foreign affairs as possible in order to avoid pissing off terrorists of other countries.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump's views on Islam and refugees are very puzzling. Although he is passionate about protecting Americans, he is contradicting himself. He is ignoring that right that all American's are given from the constitution. If he was president and implemented his ideas, that would cause a huge problem! He would add to the growing fear that ISIS wants Americans and Western culture to believe that Islam is bad. This will result in ISIS' plan create a state of power that will eventually represent all of Islam. Trump being ignorant adds to ISIS success is to become very powerful . In reality, ISIS is not very strong due to being limited in supplies and being attacked by every other country and rebel group. We must educate Western Culture to understand the difference between Islam and terrorism. As more people understand this concept, the hype of ISIS will diminish and it will be easier to stop them!
ReplyDeleteTrump's campaign moves are questionable. He seems to be confident that he could win presidency despite alienating a number of America's minority groups. Trump's comments do not hold any merit because they are outstandingly ignorant. There already is high scrutiny on presidential candidates' free speech, so they should have proper judgement and conscience before saying anything that could be skewed or interpreted the wrong way. It is difficult to pinpoint specific areas to secure and protect against domestic terrorism, because as we have seen, ISIS could strike at any point at any time.
ReplyDeleteTrump's suggestion that the president has the power to shut down religious institutions is profoundly asinine. Whether or not Presidential candidates should or should not be held to a higher standard to free speech, the public does hold them to moire accountability than the average American. On any account, Trump's suggestion that shutting down mosques will rid America of terrorists is laughable. Background checks and vetting of refugees and the enhanced security of airports and other public places are more probable options to protecting Americans from threats. Some other ways to protect Americans could be to implace stricter gun laws and measures.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Presidential candidates should be held to a higher standard in terms of free speech because it give voters the chance to see their true selves. Although some people believe and support radical and insane suggestions, like Trumps, others are not nearly as blindside by the fact that this is certainly not the way to fight terrorism. Of course, I'm no expert, but I believe that, in order to fight terrorism, we should definitely not take away the rights of specific groups of people in the US, especially when the attack was not in the US, itself.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Trump's statements hold no merit whatsoever. He is blatantly being discriminatory towards entire races and populations of people who are already American citizens. America was founded on the idea of freedom; including the freedom of religion. Who is he to try and persecute people who have come to America for those reasons? Even though I strongly disagree with basically everything Trump has said, I do believe that he is entitled to his own opinion and therefore can say what he likes. Holding presidential candidates to higher standards in regards to free speech, in my opinion, would do little good. People can most certainly hold others to higher standards, but that does not mean those people will meet those standards. Especially in this case, it does not seem that Trump cares how big of an effect his speech causes. On the home front, to protect against terrorism, I believe that America should concentrate on the protection of public, through institutions such as the police force.
ReplyDeleteTrump has the right to say whatever he wants, but that doesn't mean what he says is foolish and plainly ridiculous. While there has to be some concern of ISIS potentially infiltrating the Syrian refugees, the reality is that it's impossible to target Muslims specifically. The campaign is of Trump is getting more ridiculous every week and someone from the Republican establishment better step up before Trump ruins the reputation of the GOP
ReplyDeleteTrump has the right to freedom of speech. He can say anything he wants, however the he will pay the price for his actions. Trump targets many groups, but it is impossible to regulate everyone and everything. Trump has opinions that he is not afraid to announce to the world. He ideas are extreme and racist but he receives a lot of attention due to his remarks. ISIS is a large issue that must be taken care of. Trump voiced his opinion about how he should deal with them. His ideas may be radical, however he has the right to state these remarks. At the end of the day, it is the public who votes for the president.
ReplyDeleteWe as Americans should not support or encourage this type of behavior. As i look back in history, I see that Trump is saying what Hitler was saying back in the 1930's. While many are concerned with what happened in Paris happening here in the United States, but putting another race and religion down just to make people feel safe is absurd. The presidential candidates should be held to a higher standard and not say these ridiculous marks. As of right now, we do not have any domestic terrorism.
ReplyDeleteNo they hold no merrit at all. I think that US government shouldn't hold him to a higher standard, despite his comments being completely degrading. This is because as American's it is our duty to recognize a true presidential candidate. The US should monitor terrorist groups via the internet and should increase homeland security.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Trump’s comments are not intelligent and are racially incentive. It still surprises me that Trump has gained so many followers. Although he has such a large fan base, I believe they are following Trump not so much for his political ideologies, but for his confidence and assertion in his ideas (and also because his commentary is extremely entertaining). Trump’s comments, however, have gotten out of hand in his recent opinion on registering Muslims in the US; This has made me question the standard to which the government holds for presidential candidates. I think presidential candidates should be held to a high standard of free speech because they are running for president, a role that is consists of controlling an entire country and dealing with foreign affairs. Furthermore, to protect the United States from terrorism, the government has got to heighten homeland security and tighten security measures.
ReplyDelete