Fecteau: Terror and Response
Matt Fecteau, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™
Fecteau: Terror and Response
After such highly publicized attacks in Brussels, Paris, Orlando, and Nice, perhaps there is some slight, but misattributed justification for attributing Islam to terrorism – though statistics show other groups make up a much larger bulk of U.S. domestic terrorism. While reluctantly understandable, this drives people into the arms of those that want to harm us.
What do terrorists expect to gain when they commit a terrorist act in the name of Islam? For the narrow-minded terrorists themselves, their death or sacrifice – they don’t call it suicide, which is forbidden in the Quran — is merely a stepping stone to paradise. They are fighting for Allah and will reap the rewards of their Jihad – or so they believe.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAt a strategic level, Islamic terrorism is simply a tool to divide us. Terror groups such as al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State seek to make any action taken by the predominantly Christian West to be an act of war against all of Islam – similar to the Crusades. These terror groups, in turn, hope to incite an overactive anti-Muslim backlash creating an Army of recruits to its demented, sadistic cause.
It is easy to blame all Muslims in the United States; after all, Muslims make up only about 1% of the U.S. population, and some look distinct from what someone might falsely attribute to being a typical American. After 9/11, it should be no surprise, there was an uptick in attacks on Sikhs across the United States even though they are of a vastly different religion.
These disgusting stereotyping also undermine our fight against those that only seek to destroy us. This is a powerful recruitment tool in the age of social media where isolated loners seek answers to address their inadequacies and shortcomings. In recent years, especially with this past U.S. presidential election and other national elections across the globe, political leaders embraced bigotry and xenophobia towards Muslims to stir up their predominantly white, Christian base.
We saw the cancerous impact of such demagoguery when Somali Islamist terror group al-Shabab used clips of then presidential candidate Donald Trump discussing a Muslim ban in a recruitment video. Mr. Trump has since, obviously, become president, and has issued a modified version of that Muslim ban – the U.S. Courts have since ruled it is unconstitutional.
This anti-Muslim rhetoric is not only unhelpful but toxic to defeating our adversaries. This suits the terror groups well especially when it comes time to appeal to vulnerable, impressionable individuals – not necessarily Muslim — seeking to make meaning in his or her life. Islam does have come pronounced problems, but failing to grasp that Islam is a complex, nuanced religion of 1.8 billion people is both egregiously wrong and ignorant; furthermore, this makes a sincere discussion difficult to have, and tangible solutions harder to produce. Instead of building bridges, terrorists hope we build walls to tolerance and understanding.
In a world with unrelenting coverage of terrorist attacks, hatred and prejudice are easy, but learning from each other, building a community together, and creating a world free of terrorism, that is far more difficult, yet productive too. Islamic terrorism and all terrorism should be condemned, but so should the disgusting, bigoted rhetoric that enables such terrorist acts; that would be a fitting response.
Trump's Win - What Does it Mean for Rhode Island?
Jennifer Duffy
Cook Report
"We don't really know what a Trump presidency means for the nation, never mind the smallest state. One of the unintended consequences of last night's results is that Sen. Jack Reed won't be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Chalk that up as a loss for RI."
Pam Gencarella
Head of Ocean State Taxpayers' Association
"Trump’s win means that his signature issue, illegal immigration, could have a big impact on RI, hopefully reversing our course as a sanctuary state and saving the state taxpayer millions of dollars. While we agree with his 'repeal and replace' Obamacare stance, we have no idea what that means to the RI debacle known as UHIP. It is not a stretch to believe that federal funding for this kind of system will be off the table so, will RI be stuck with this massively expensive system that still doesn’t work and that is expected to cost another $124 million to fix?
Trump's belief that there is significant fraud in the Food Stamp program and the policies that may come from that belief could have a negative impact on RI's local economy since there are businesses in certain cities that rely heavily on this program, fraud and all. On the upside, we may be able to ditch the UHIP program if there is significantly less need for processing welfare program requests (ie. Medicaid and food stamps) resulting from fewer illegal immigrants and less fraud. While we are ambivalent about his touted child care policies, if enacted, it may force our legislators to revisit the ever growing state cost of subsidies in this area and possibly reduce the fraud and abuse in this system."
Kay Israel
Professor at Rhode Island College
"With a Republican President and Congress, Rhode Island will probably be excluded from the 'fruits of victory."
The congressional delegation will be able to vocally make their presence felt, but in the long term it's more symbolic than substantive.
For Rhode Island it's a matter of holding on and waiting until '18 or '20 and a surge in Democratic influence."
Jennifer Lawless
Professor at American University
"The RI congressional delegation just became even less powerful than it was. With unified government, Trump doesn’t need to quell Democrats’ concerns or acquiesce because he’s worried about a Democratically-controlled Senate.
His appointments will reflect that. His executive orders will affect that. And the conservative policy agenda he puts forward will affect that."
Len Lardaro
Professor at University of Rhode Island
"Well there's a few things -- because there's not going to be gridlock, that's a big difference if it had been Hillary and a GOP Congress, in which nothing would got done. We'll at least get a half a billion in infrastructure that's going to pass which will have an impact.
I think you'll see there will be reduced reliance on government nationally -- and that's where we'll stick out like sore thumb. We've relied way too much on government -- and our government is highly inefficient and ineffective. Maybe, just maybe, in this who cycle of things we might be forced to be small and more efficient for once.
A couple of other things -- interest rates jumped. The one to follow is the ten year government bond rate -- which is tied to mortgages. It went from 1.7% to 2.05% in one day. The point is -- if the ten year stays high, mortgage rates will start going higher -- and in the short time people will run to re-finance.
That's the short term impact -- but then if rates stay hight, that will make mortgages more out of reach. And we just passed a bond issue to limit open space -- housing has limited upside here.
The next thing -- the Fed Reserve will go ahead with tightening next month. A strong dollar will hurt manufacturing. When the dollar is strong our exports become more expensive overseas.
Our goods production sector -- manufacturing and construction -- in the near term will do a little better, but as time goes on will be more limited. But something you won't hear, is there are lags in fiscal policy, of six months to year. So we won't really see the effects until the third our fourth quarter of 2017, going into 2018."
Mike Stenhouse
RI Center for Freedon and Prosperity
"As the unbelievable turned into reality this morning, it struck me that the presidential election was not really all about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It was about a fed-up people, revolting against a corrupt system - the "beast" - that relentlessly favors insiders. Hillary personified the beast, while Donald personified the slayer.
Sadly, based on election results in our state, Rhode Island's version of the beast lives on. I fear our political class has not learned the lessons from the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump movements - and will continue with their government-centric, anti-family, anti-business status quo."
Kristina Contreras Fox
VP of Young Democrats of America
"A Trump Presidency means the validation of the ugliest part of America. In RI, as with the rest of the country, the hammer of his hatred will fall hardest on minority communities. Being a blue state doesn't make us immune from this danger.
Trump won over 35% (39.5) of the vote here! We need to look in the mirror, and not lie about what the reflection shows us. No more hiding underneath a blue blanket. I expect those who claim Democratic values to be true to those values. The gulf between words and actions have turned into fertile ground for Trump's message to grow here in RI. If you call yourself a Democrat, if you claim to stand in opposition to Trump, now is the time to prove it. Show up and fight back."
