By Ali Younes
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal finally spoke the truth and showed his true colors during his recent interview with CNN when he decried and insulted Muslims and Islam. The truth Jindal revealed was not about Islam or Muslim as he thinks he did, rather, it was about his racist and twisted views of what it means to be an American and what it means to assimilate in America and in the west.
Jindal told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday that “you’ve got people who want to come to our country but not adopt our values,” which he called “dangerous.” “
He also added that “It is startling to think that any country would allow, even unofficially, for a so called ‘no-go zone.’ The idea that a free country would allow for specific areas of its country to operate in an autonomous way that is not free and is in direct opposition to its laws is hard to fathom”
What is hard to fathom, however, is where did Jindal get his information from? in the wake of the terrorist attack on the satirist French magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the rise of anti-Islam racism that followed, It is clear that he has no clue of what he is talking about, because there is no country in the world that falls within his baseless allegations of the so called “no go zones”.
His remarks also show that he is just another right wing racist politician taking advantage of the toxic racism against the Muslim communities in Europe and in the United States. Jindal offered no examples or evidence when pressed by CNN to prove his “no go zones”. It was clear that he was just peddling his hatred and racism, which is quite unfortunate that the highest elected official in the state of Louisiana is a man with Jindal’s views.
CNN also reported that Jindal said that “in the West, non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Sharia law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home,”
I find it quite remarkable that for a guy whose real name is ” Piyush” and was born to immigrant parents from India to speak about assimilation into ” our values” when the only assimilation he did was to call himself ” Bobby” and the only “value” he acquired in America, judging by his political views, was to become a real life “Uncle Ruckus, no relation” the bigoted and racist black cartoon character on the TV series the Boondocks, who worships everything white and hates everything black.
In addition to its obvious ignorance of “Islamic law” and Muslim societies across the globe, Jindal remarks sounds as if they were uttered by a Hindu Nationalist in religiously-divided and troubled India not by an American politician in twenty first century America. Jindal, moreover, would have never become a governor of an American State and at the same time dreaming of becoming a president one day if America was still segregated and racially divided country the way it was during the life of the man we are celebrating today. The scarifies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and of the black community along with other minorities for justice and racial equality in this country enabled people with immigrant backgrounds like Jindal to have a better future and a better life in this country.
It is a shame that politicians like Jindal show the ugly face of American politics that instead of living up the Martin Luther’s King dream of working to ensure equality and justice for all Americans regardless of their backgrounds, they are instead, taking the country back to divisive and segregationist politics. For that, governor Jindal should apologize to the Muslim community, appreciate diversity and work to end racism in this country not increases it.
Ali Younes is the Editor of the Arab Daily News. He can be reached at: aliyounes@thearabdailynews.com, and on twitter @clearaliyounes
Ali Younes is a Senior Political Analyst for The Arab Daily News online newspaper. He is a veteran news-editor, Journalist, and a Middle East analyst working for major American news network . He is based in Washington, D.C.
Reach Ali at aliyounes99@gmail.com
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I am not a Republican,so Governor Jindal isn’t a favorite of mine,but his statement,
“in the West, non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Sharia law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home,”
has the ring of truth to me.