News & Comment
The ‘Foreign Virus’

News:

CNN complained about Trump on the 13th of March with the headline: “Why it matters A LOT that Trump hasn't been tested for coronavirus” despite having come into contact with an infected person last week. When asked if he would take a test, his response was: "Let's put it this way, I'm not concerned, OK?” and he also said: “I don't think it's a big deal, I would do it, I don't feel any reason -- I feel extremely good." He was asked again on Friday and his response was: “We have no symptoms whatsoever.”

CNN expressed concern that the leader of the US was being careless and putting American lives in danger by his attitude.

Comment:

The Trump chump teaches us how a powerful and leading nation can keep on punching for a time, while it slowly shrivels away from within. Many political leaders underestimated the threat of Covid 19, but none have persisted for so long as Trump has in failing to appreciate the significance of this virus for his country. When Trump finally made ‘address to the nation’ it was so bad that stock markets were left in turmoil by the confusions and contradictions in his speech. It even seemed that he thought the virus just a conspiracy of somebody to make him look bad. For weeks he has complained about his political opponents at home for “weaponising the virus” against him, and his speech carried references to the “virus from China” and the “foreign virus” as if to confirm his hatred and fear of foreigners and his love of walls. Now he has banned flights from Europe, even though the US is riddled with the virus and has not had enough testing kits to be able to find out for certain just how bad the situation really is.

Although the US is an ideological nation, a people governed by laws and constitution, administered by layers of institutions, constructed around the idea of ‘checks and balances’, it is looking more like a banana republic every day. Even the leaders of weak and servile satellite states appear more statesman-like than America’s commander in chief. It must be difficult for them not to laugh in public at the idiot, who might any time push the button to crush them if his aides and advisors are not watching closely enough.

Have the lunatics taken over the asylum? No, not yet. The people are running it, and they can’t all be crazy, ¬can they? They voted for Trump, and then the majority of congressmen in the Senate, who the people also voted for, decided to acquit Trump of all charges after his farcical impeachment trial. So no, the lunatics have not taken over; the people are still very much in charge. But what of the opposition – can they tempt the people to vote for something smarter? The leading competitor in the democratic primaries is the one who sounds most like Trump, and perhaps only a man like Jo Biden, who can swear and curse at people will be up to the job of knocking out Trump. Bad leaders come and go, but elections and institutions are impotent to bring about a preponderance of goodness.

Ninety nine years have passed since the Khilafah was written out of Turkey’s constitution, but the creed upon which that state was formed is still alive in the hearts and minds of Muslims. However, the world is suffering in darkness without its actualization.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Abdullah Robin

#Covid19
#Korona