Republican presidential candidates are having more and more harsh speeches when it comes to the U.S Muslim community. But the GOP rhetoric on Muslims isn’t much of a big disadvantage for Republicans, says ABC News.
Are Muslims a real threat for the U.S.?
Why are Republican candidates adopting this strategy? Well, their strong rhetoric is addressing what they view as a threat to national security by Islam itself, analysts say, confirmed by the same source. And because Muslims represent a small minority, Trump and co. are not afraid to use such harsh language.
“I think this issue exists on its own island, It’s highly unlikely to cause a political penalty and there is no evidence that it has.”, said Steve Schmidt, a Republican political consultant who ran Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
It all took a nasty turn after the Paris attacks, where 130 people were killed. Then the GOP rhetoric on Muslims started to blow up. Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, has said he wants to register all Muslims in the U.S. and surveil American mosques. After that, he claimed that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated when the World Trade Center was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Trump expressed its opinion about them numerous times
“Donald Trump is already very well known for being brash and outspoken and is appealing to a group of people — a minority of American voters, but a large minority — who seem to like that kind of tough talk,” said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, quoted by ABC News. Of course, neither Trump’s rival, former surgeon Ben Carson, couldn’t stay away from all this fuzz.
He said that allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. would be similar to exposing a neighborhood to a “rabid dog.”. Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas Gov., considers that President Barack Obama is protecting the Muslims. “I’d like for Barack Obama to resign if he’s not going to protect America and instead protect the image of Islam.”, stated Huackabee. “There’s a religious undercurrent here, aside from foreign policy issues,” said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, convinced that the recent GOP rhetoric on Muslims has to do with all kinds of reasons.
Isn’t this attitude a bit too much?
When Trump started his campaign, he stated that Mexican immigrants are “bringing crime. They’re rapists.”. That didn’t worked to well for him, if you remember. A lot of voices disapproved Trump’s sayings. But now, both Trump and Carson are setting a war against all Muslims and no one bats an eye.
According to a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center, Republicans view Muslims more negatively than they do any other religious group, and significantly worse than do Democrats, says ABC News. Another Pew poll found out last year that 82 percent of Republicans were “very concerned” about the rise of Islamic extremism, compared with 51 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of independents, according to the same source.
