To Donald Trumps bigots, we are all Muslims

“I am a big fan of Hindu, and I am a big fan of India”, said Donald Trump at a 5000-person event, in Edison, N.J, on October 15, organized by the Republican Hindu Coalition. Trump and the media took this as an endorsement of Trump by Indians. It wasn’t. The attendees were there to see Bollywood stars such as Malaika Arora Khan and Prabhu Deva.

Yes, the crowds did cheer when Trump said that he would be a friend to Indians and contain the threat from “Muslims”. In the euphoria, few of the attendees — mostly immigrants and workers on H-1B visas—understood that the real agenda of Trump and his most ardent supporters is not to welcome them and provide them with green cards, but to make America white again. Trump and the racists who have propelled him to success want to curtail free trade and deport Mexicans and Muslims. And they want to get rid of H-1Bs. Trump said at a previous rally, “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program”.

Silicon Valley, where I live, is one of the most ethnically diverse and educated places in the world. Immigrants like me fit right in, and we welcome others — of all nationalities and religions. No Silicon Valley executive, with the exception of eccentric billionaire Peter Thiel, has supported Donald Trump — because his values are antithetical to what the Valley stands for.

Yet there is also some bigotry and bias here.

At the Sikh place of workshop, the gurudwara, in San Jose, which I visited a few weeks ago, I was taken aback to hear a white woman who had converted to Sikhism and was wearing ultra-traditional Sikh garb — including a turban, robe, and kirpan — say to passersby: “Donald Trump is the only person who can defend America from the Muslims. Let’s all vote for him and save America”.

I know I should have ignored her, but I couldn’t help walking up to her and saying: “Don’t you realize that, to the people Trump is appealing to, we are all Muslims; that the turban on your head looks very much like what Osama bin Laden wore; and that the dark skin of the people you are preaching to is what really offends these racists?”

She responded by yelling at the top of her lungs: “Trump is going to make America great again; he tells it like it is; look at what crooked Hillary did in Benghazi!” Realizing that I was speaking to a segment of America that is not well educated and won’t listen to logic, I walked away.

But there are, like the organizers of the Bollywood rally at Edison, educated, rich Indians too who are supporting Trump out of religious bias. I was really shaken up when one of my Indian-American friends, a successful venture capitalist, told me that he planned to vote for Trump because he will “put the Muslims in their place”.

Perhaps all of this shook me up because I still vividly recall the days after 9/11, when anti-Muslim hysteria was at its peak. Dark-skinned or Arab-looking people with beards (like me) became targets of angry mobs. I had refused to heed the advice of my friends to shave my beard, and had angry insults hurled at me when I ventured into a small town on my way to the North Carolina coast. Two of my Sikh friends’ children were so fearful that they cut their hair and removed their turbans. Indian women who wore bindis were disparaged and labelled “dotheads”.  Since 9/11, there have been dozens of hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims.

This is what happens when you stoke the flames of racism and bigotry.

Sadly, these are demons that Donald Trump has already unleashed on America — until recently one of the most open, inclusive, and tolerant countries in the world. Yes, all human beings have biases, and there has always been some racism beneath the surface. But America has been making great strides from its days of slavery and segregation. For the last five decades, to express racist views has become increasingly unacceptable.

Now, a presidential candidate is retweeting members of the Ku Klux Klan — and his party is standing behind him. Politicians who campaigned for immigration and free trade are rallying against it. Respected political leaders remain silent when Trump spews racist venom, when he makes sexist rants against Latino beauty queens, and when videotapes emerge of him dignifying sexual abuse and misogyny.

It is very likely that the majority of the U.S. will take a stand and vote against Trump. Despite America’s flaws, it does have a collective conscience pushing to do the right ethical and moral things.

But damage has already been done. Racism, bigotry, and xenophobia have again risen to the surface and become acceptable. The world has seen a side of America that has shocked it, and the country has lost moral ground. How will the U.S now stand up to tyrants who perform ethnic cleansing, leaders of corrupt banana republics who turn their countries into cash registers for their businesses, and despots who ignore the constitutions of their countries, when a potential president of America expresses the same sentiments?

The only good that has come of this is that, once the elections are over, America can begin the process of healing itself. It can’t deny its deep-rooted problems any longer.