By Nicholas Muiruri
Following the recent anti-Islamic remarks made by Donald Trump, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has reacted with condemnation. In his remarks, Kareem, a former NBA superstar compares Trump to the terror group ISIS. Three days ago, Donald Trump called for the banning of Muslims from the U.S. Trump was responding to the extremist attacks in France and California.
In response, Abdul-Jabbar stated that Trump was creating fear through statements that had no truth in them. The NBA legend added that what the Republican presidential candidate said amounted to intimidating Muslims. He added that the type of lies and discrimination of people on religious grounds was no different from the terror meted out by ISIS.
Webster Dictionary defines terrorism as an ‘act of frightening people through violence to achieve political objectives.’ Abdul-Jabbar based his response on this definition and stated in his theory that if one could equate violence to an abstraction, then the presidential campaign by Donald Trump amounted to terrorism.
In other words, Abdul-Jabbar considers Donald Trump to be a political terrorist. The NBA former star noted that Trump was fond of being verbally offensive. Moreover, the real estate mogul’s verbal attacks were intended to cause fear amongst people. In return, the fear would coerce the affected people to vote for Trump. Abdul-Jabbar termed this a clever way of using terror to achieve political objectives. He said the tactic was similar to ISIS mode of operation where the group creates panic with the intention of gaining political mileage.
Abdul-Jabbar noted that Trump deceived people by manipulating half-truths. Jabbar regretted that Trump had managed to brainwash those supporting him. He wrote that with that kind of support, America was in a dangerous position. Jabbar stated that the U.S. presidency requires people with integrity and not the likes of Donald Trump.
Abdul-Jabbar is a former NBA athlete and has been a Muslim for over 40 years now. In his Monday speech, Trump said he did not know of any American athletes who were Muslims. Jabbar wondered how come Trump forgot how Abdul-Jabbar changed his religion.
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