Gabbard’s opinion on ‘Islamism’ is based on anti-Muslim sentiments.
Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician, born on April 12, 1981. She is an Iraq War veteran and now serves as the US representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district.
Back in 1998, when she was just 17 years old, she started bucking into the world of politics. It was a critical year for her and India alike, wherein the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was established for the first time. Her father, Mike Gabbard, was a political activist and member of Honolulu City Council. Her mother, Carol Gabbard, served on Hawaii’s State Board of Education.
In 2003, Tulsi Gabbard was voted for Hawaii’s House of Representatives. In 2004, she enlisted in the Army National Guard and was stationed in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 at the peak of the war. She is considered a decorated soldier. She was also stationed at Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. Since 2012, she has been acknowledged as an emerging leader in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party as the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of the US Congress. At a pivotal moment, she surfaced as the wild card democratic prospect. On February 2, 2019, she officially sprang her campaign for the 2020 democratic nomination. The 37-years-old Hindu-American politician got much national media importance after her election to the Congress.
Since the beginning of her political career, Hindu-Americans have backed Gabbard and that support has increased considerably since Modi’s election. She has a strong political alliance with right-wing Hindu Nationalist groups in India and the US. According to The Intercept edition of November 2017, Gabbard stated that she would be leading the “World Hindu Congress” in (2018). It is a global forum held once every four years organised by Hindu Nationalist groups, which include Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Gabbard has taken most proactive moves as she gets involved with cruel dictators named Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for the sake of countering terrorism. In 2015, she upheld the Egyptian dictator, who manoeuvred the worst mass killings of protesters in modern history. She admired his great leadership and heroism in the fight against radical Islamist ideology.
Similarly, in 2017, she travelled to Syria and defended Syrian leader Bashar-al-Assad, who was presiding over a ruthless civil war.
However, Gabbard has been brought up with the Hindu faith. She maintains strong ties with Indian PM Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist. In 2002, one of the most horrific acts of communal violence occurred in the state of Gujrat with Modi as its chief minister. Around 2000 people died, mostly Muslims, not because they are radical extremists, but only because they consume beef or deny reciting the names of Hindu idols.
Since then, Modi and the RSS had both progressively controversial, confronting demurs by the academic world as well as the rebuke by the US government. She was the one who played a significant role in bringing Modi to the US as he was banned to come due to him being “Butcher of Gujrat.”
In 2014, she visited India on the personal invitation of Modi where she presented Bhagavad Gita to him. After the meeting, she told an interviewer that they spoke on several issues, including renewable energy, bilateral trade, defence and climate change.
According to her, Modi is a person who considers these matters staunchly. His leadership and dedication should be an inspiration for an elected leader across the globe. She further added that US and India must have a strong alliance to handle not only these concerns but also make an effort to counter the global threat raised by Islamic radicalism. Therefore, the rejection of a visa to Modi could have damaged this alliance. All of this has fuelled an impression that “Gabbard’s foreign policy is driven by Islamophobia.”
Gabbard’s opinion on ‘Islamism’ is based on anti-Muslim sentiments, which further claimed that the ideology of the ‘radical Islam’ stimulates violence and causes terrorism. She has constantly indicated that ‘Islamism’ and ‘radical Islamic ideology’ exacerbate terrorism. For this purpose, she met with foreign frontrunners who provoking hatred against Muslims and criminalizing Muslim communities. In 2014, she presented a bill to “suspend from the visa program for people from any country that has identified passport holders fighting with an Islamist extremist organisation.”
In 2015, during an interview with Fox News, she expressed her thoughts on “radical Islamic ideology.” She considered it as one of the most common elements with all different radical extremists and noted and that we have to identify this to come up with an effective strategy to defeat them.
Last June, on Twitter, she called out President Donald Trump’s “travel ban” for being “arbitrary” and “useless.” Following the Modi’s election, there are increased stories of violence, including the assassination of Muslims by cow-vigilantes and Hindu nationalists.
Today, Gabbard is a dark horse in the race but her expectations to mark history in the 2020 election by becoming the first female President. In various parts of the world, she has demonstrated negative attitudes regarding Muslims. According to The New Yorker, Gabbard’s relationship with India is a strategic alliance. She always sheltered Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by saying that in India, the suppression and violence directed at Muslims were minimal in comparison to the experiences of other religious minorities in Muslim countries.Ahead of 2020 Democratic beginnings, she might even win the presidency, at odds of discharging aggression against Muslims. With the world leaping at prejudice against Muslims, don’t you think it’s willy-nilly for Muslim Ummah to put aside all differences and congregate to shatter all evil mindsets of foreign hegemony? If not, be ready to face a substantial crisis to come.
The writer is a freelance researcher with a focus on regional politics and international business. She previously worked at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)