Washington: Tulsi Gabbard, the first ever Hindu to be elected to the US House of Representatives, today slammed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for his call for blocking all Muslims from entering the US, saying he is trying to exploit people’s fears for his own political purpose.
“It’s clear what Donald Trump is doing; he’s trying to exploit people’s fears for his own political purpose. I think it’s important to look at where are these fears coming from, these unfunded generalised fears of all Muslims,” Congresswoman Gabbard told the CNN in an interview.
A democratic lawmaker from Hawaii, Gabbard was responding to questions on the call given by Trump to temporarily prevent all Muslims from entering the United States.
“It’s really coming from failure of leaders in our country to make this distinction between the vast majority of Muslims and this small minority who are practicing or embracing this radical Islamic ideology also known as Islamism,” she said.
“This ideology that is really a totalitarian political ideology that says some form of Islam should be the governing doctrine over society or government. So, that’s why this distinction is so important,” Gabbard said.
A vocal critic of the policies of US President Barack Obama, Gabbard alleged that it is the failure of recognizing and identifying who enemy is and the ideology that’s driving it that brings to this point where these attacks continue.