Iraqis Welcome Trump’s Stance on ISIS, but Fear It May Backfire
ERBIL, Iraq — Many Muslims in the Middle East reacted with a mix of fear, caution, suspicion and scorn on Friday to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s appointments of aides with hostile views toward Islam.
From Iraq and Syria and Lebanon and elsewhere, a range of people already skeptical about Mr. Trump said their doubts were only reinforced by announcements that senior security positions in his administration would be filled with figures like Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, known for his outspoken antipathy toward Muslims.
“Trump chose @GenFlynn as his National Security Advisor. We must not shy away from comparing his anti-Muslim rhetoric to that of the Nazis,” Joey Ayoub, a well known Lebanese blogger, said on Twitter. He echoed the trepidation about General Flynn’s now-famous Twitter post that “fear of Muslims is rational.”
Struggling to understand what Mr. Trump’s ascent means for them and their war-ravaged region, some, however, expressed hope that he will confront militant Islamist extremists far more aggressively than the Obama administration has done.
Yet others fear that Mr. Trump’s views — and his reliance cabinet appointees who have expressed anti-Islam views — will be exploited as a recruiting tool by Islamic State operatives and other violent militants.
Mr. Trump’s suspicions toward Muslims “reinforces and ratifies the jihadist worldview,” said Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violenceat King’s College in London. “Jihadists are always looking for evidence of this conspiracy against Islam.”
He said General Flynn’s elevation in particular “is deeply, deeply worrying.”
In Iraq, where modern history has been profoundly shaped by the decisions of American presidents, officials and citizens alike are weighing Mr. Trump’s harsh words against his promise to defeat terrorism.
Surprisingly, some Iraqis seemed less offended by Mr. Trump’s comments linking terrorism to Islam than American liberals.
Iraqis have endured years of Islam being used to justify mass killing, and some see Mr. Trump as a truth-teller in calling out Islam — or a certain brand of it — as the problem.
Iraqi Shiites say they believe Mr. Trump will take a harder line on Saudi Arabia, the Sunni power that many see as the incubator of the extreme form of Islam, Wahhabism, that forms a basis of the Islamic State’s ideology.
“The victory of Trump is the beginning of the end of extremist Islam and Wahhabism,” said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, an Iraqi lawmaker and the country’s former national security adviser.
In Mr. Trump’s vow to defeat terrorism many Iraqis say they have hope that decisive American power will be marshaled to eradicate the Islamic State, the extremist group also known as ISIS, which has brutalized parts of Iraq, Syria and Libya and plotted attacks on the West.
“We have no concerns about the policy of Trump because he is against extremism,” said Saad al-Hadithi, the spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq. “We think we are facing one enemy, and that is fighting ISIS. Therefore, I do not think there are fears or concerns about a new American policy.”
On Friday, Mr. Abadi spoke by phone with Mr. Trump for the first time, and a statement released by the prime minister’s office said the two leaders affirmed their cooperation against the Islamic State. Mr. Trump told Mr. Abadi, “you are essential partners to us and you will find strong and deep support.”
But Mr. Trump’s invective against Muslims during the campaign, and his apparent intent to put those feelings into policy with his appointments, represented a deep betrayal to the many Iraqis who worked as translators alongside the American military in Iraq, and have dreamed of immigrating to the United States under a special visa program that will now be in jeopardy.
“Though six years have passed, I was still hoping to get a call at any moment that would represent the fulfillment of the promise they made to me,” said Ali Najam Abdullah, who worked as an interpreter for the American military in Anbar Province for five years.
He said seeing Mr. Trump win the presidency, “has given me a clear image that dream has totally vanished.”
Some local leaders in areas of Iraq that have known firsthand the Islamic State’s brutality expressed alarm that an American government seen as virulently anti-Muslim would become a rallying cry for jihadist recruiters.
“There is concern about the policy of Trump toward the Muslims because America is not just any state,” said Kareem al-Jibouri, a member of the provincial council in Diyala Province. “It is a powerful state, and we are concerned that any extreme policy toward Muslims will help extreme movements by polarizing thousands of the youths and turning them into time bombs by recruiting them.”
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