News & Comment
After Obama, Muslim world expects little from Trump – and that is good

News

After what many saw as a surprise victory for Donald Trump in the U.S. elections, there is a lot of speculation, debate and even panic about what a Trump presidency will mean for America and the wider world - including the Muslim world.

Comment

So Hilary Clinton got trumped by Trump and some in the world are now panicking! They look at his many outrageous statements during the presidential election campaign and remember his hostility and threats against Mexicans, immigrants, Muslims, women and a whole range of issues. So there is now intense debate about what his presidency will mean for all these groups of people and issues.

Whatever happens next, no doubt, his personal style of causing outrage with some of his statements will continue. However, unlike some in the world, few voices in the Muslim world are expecting good from a new US administration or looking to the US as some sort of saviour to emulate in order to solve our problems in the Muslim world.

Nearly eight years of Obama has put paid to that. Remember that he was supposed to be the thoughtful intelligent professorial and wise leader who would herald better treatment of the Muslim world after the war mongering and invasions of the Bush era! Remember his speech in Cairo? Remember his warm words about Islam and Muslims? At face value, some were taken in by that and started to expect change in the way the U.S. government deals with the Muslim world and its support for the most brutal of dictators there. Fast forward nearly eight years and Obama ended up killing more people with drones in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia than even George W Bush did! The war on terror continued despite some modification of rhetoric and U.S. support for the most brutal dictators across the Muslim world has remained – just to name a few things. All that has opened the eyes of those whose eyes were closed to the reality and consistence of the U.S. government as a capitalist power whose foreign policy and quest to access the wealth of the Muslim world and combat the rise of Islamic governance as a global alternative to capitalism.

In the US, just like in the UK with the Brexit vote, many people in the West are increasingly fed up with mainstream politics, politicians and democracy. With Trumps election, whatever claims the U.S. had as an example of global 'leadership' is again eroded and that is not a bad thing.

So it is time for the Muslim world to re-establish its own Islamic leadership, the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah (Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood. A system that puts looking after people' affairs at of the core of politics, circulating wealth at the heart of economics, unites people of different races and works for the betterment of humanity under the guidance of the system sent for all of humanity.

Now, that is a vision Muslims should work to re-establish in the Muslim world, and that will be a new beacon for the world, insha'Allah.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain