Terror and the United States 2016 Election

Abstract

A supposed war between Islam and the West has occupied a central role in the political discourse ever since the attacks on the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. Fifteen years later, in November 2016, Donald Trump was elected and inaugurated to serve as the 45th president of the United States. During his campaign, Trump claimed that radical Islam was incompatible with American culture. To support his claim, he pointed to Islamic terrorism. In 2015 and 2016 multiple attacks were perpetrated by Muslim extremists. A terror-organization called ISIS carried out the attacks attesting to divide the West. Desirous politicians were willing to answer their call. Trump was one of those. A “trojan horse” filled with malicious terrorists from the Middle-East were waiting to enter the United States, according to him. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, was going to wide-open the gates for this threat with her policy of accepting refugees from war-ridden Syria. The only thing standing in her way, Trump claimed, was himself. Samuel Huntington predicted the surge of nationalism, chauvinism, and xenophobia that has been emerging in recent years. Simultaneously, the democratic institutions that have served to amplify prosperity in the West, are decaying. Trump’s occupancy is not an anomaly but a feature of a new trend in politics of the West. Populists in various corners claim that the clash of civilizations has begun and the time for political a correctness is over.