Trump drops anti-muslim rhetoric
SAUDI ARABIA: President Donald Trump yesterday dropped some of his harsh talk about Islam as he urged leaders of the Muslim world not to wait for the United States but to act on their own to root out terrorism.
Notably, the speech did not include the words ‘‘radical Islamic terrorism,’’ a term he used as recently as February in his first speech to Congress, though he did use the phrases ‘‘Islamic extremism’’ and ‘‘Islamic terror.’’
For most, he said, violence does not stem from Islam or any other religion.
‘‘Every time a terrorist murders an innocent person, and falsely invokes the name of God, it should be an insult to every person of faith,’’ he said.
In the first major foreign policy speech of his presidency, Trump’s tone was notably softer from the harsh rhetoric about Islam that characterised his election campaign. Reading from prepared remarks, he spoke of the ‘‘peace and tolerance of all faiths’’ and praised the Middle East’s beauty and culture.
He urged leaders to act for the good of their citizens.
‘‘The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them,’’ Trump said. ‘‘The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves, for their countries, and for their children.’’
The highly anticipated speech to the Arab-islamic-us Summit came as the Trump administration is still trying to temporarily stop the entry into the United States of citizens from six Muslim-majority nations.
The leader of one of those countries, Omar al Bashir of Sudan, who is wanted on international war crimes charges, declined to attend the meeting and sent his minister of state instead. The leaders of Syria and Iran, bitter rivals of Saudi Arabia, were not invited. It was not immediately known if anyone from the other three - Libya, Somalia and Yemen were in attendance.
Trump’s address has been compared in importance to the one his predecessor, Barack Obama, delivered in Cairo in his first year in office. Obama, who was not popular in the Persian Gulf countries, had been accused of telling leaders how to run their countries, which Trump said he would not do.
‘‘We are not here to lecture - we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,’’ he said. ‘‘Instead, we are here to offer partnership - based on shared interests and values - to pursue a better future for us all.’’
Most of Trump’s 33-minute speech, delivered in the birthplace of Islam and the home to two of the most scared Muslim pilgrimage sites, was devoted to saying all countries have ‘‘an absolute duty’’ to rid terrorism from their soil.
He raised his voice for emphasis as he urged them to act.
‘‘A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and drive out the extremists,’’ he said.
‘‘Drive them out! Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land. And drive them out of this earth.’’
Trump mentioned terrorist events that took place on US soil the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing and mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif. and Orlando, Fla. - but noted that despite all the killings that have taken place around the world, the vast majority of victims - 95 percent, he said - have been Muslims in the Middle East.
‘‘In sheer numbers, the deadliest toll has been exacted on the innocent people of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern nations,’’ he said. ‘‘They have borne the brunt of the killings and the worst of destruction in this wave of fanatical violence.’’
Fifty-six leaders of Muslim nations were invited to the summit.- TNS