Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, is poised to influence how the president thinks about counterterrorism and national security. Gorka has a long history of spouting Islamophobic rhetoric and on Wednesday, he once again skirted a basic question about Trump’s view of Islam.
In an interview with NPR on Wednesday, host Steve Inskeep asked Gorka, “Does the president believe Islam is a religion?”
Gorka spurned the question, telling Inskeep, “This is not a theological seminary. This is the White House. And we’re not going to get into theological debates.”
“If the president has a certain attitude to a certain religion, that’s something you can ask him,” Gorka said on the radio show. “But we’re talking about national security and the totalitarian ideologies that drive the groups that threaten America.”
Later on in the interview, Gorka admitted that Islam itself is not the enemy. But he still believes that terrorism is fueled by religious fervor ― a phenomenon he called “global jihadism.”
Jihad is a word that is often misused by both Muslim extremists and by Islamophobes. For the overwhelming majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, jihad is a religious concept that means “to struggle” and refers to a Muslim’s inner struggle to become a better person.
This is the second time Inskeep asked Gorka to comment on whether Trump believes Islam is a religion. In an earlier interview on Feb. 3, Gorka told Inskeep that this is “not a discussion about Islam as a religion or not a religion. It’s about radical Islamic terrorism.”
The Huffington Post reached out to The White House for clarification on Gorka’s statements, but has not heard back. Trump hasn’t publicly responded to the question of whether he believes Islam is a religion.
But the president has displayed an inability to distinguish between the Islam and terrorism. On the campaign trail, he said he thinks “Islam hates us.”
Gorka’s comments reflect the dangerously misguided view of Islam held by many of Trump’s top advisors.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and former executive chairman of Breitbart News, has described Islam as a “political ideology.” In the past, Bannon has given anti-Muslims extremists a platform to spread their views on his radio show.
Gorka himself has touted the view that the violence perpetuated by militant groups like the Islamic State is rooted in Islam and in the “martial language” of the Quran.
His views align with the vision of Islam promoted by anti-Muslim hate groups, whose numbers have been rising in the U.S. These hate groups often speak of Islam as a totalitarian ideology, one that seeks to impose a brutal interpretation of Sharia law on American courts. But this is a deeply flawed view of Islam.
Much like Jewish Halakha, Sharia is a set of religious laws that cover aspects of a Muslim’s spiritual life. No Muslim organization has ever called for Sharia to supersede the U.S. Constitution.
John L. Esposito is a Georgetown University professor and author of Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. He told The Huffington Post that terrorist groups like ISIS exploit religion for political purposes.
“Religion is used by ISIS to legitimate its cause and recruit and mobilize followers,” Esposito told The Huffington Post in an email. “But ... the vast majority of Muslims regard this use or that of [Al Qaeda] and other terrorists as a hijacking of their religion ... Their barbaric actions (the killing of civilians, men, women and children) contradict Islamic law itself.”
Although Gorka dodged NPR’s questions about whether Trump thinks Islam is a religion, the administration has had no problem attempting to link Islam to terrorist attacks. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s own national security advisor, has tried to persuade the White House to stop using the term “radical Islamic terrorism,” saying that terrorists like the Islamic State militants are not representative of Islam as a whole and that the term alienates American Muslims.
But Trump has used the term often, on the campaign trail and in the White House. He said it with relish during his first speech to Congress.
Gorka emphasized his support for the term during the interview with NPR.
“It is radical Islamic terrorism, and that’s never changed and it will not change,” Gorka said.
Esposito believes the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” sends the wrong signal.
“To use the word Islamic will imply to many that these terrorists and their actions are supported by the overwhelming majority of Muslims or seen by them as somehow religiously legitimate,” he told HuffPost.
While Trump and his administration speak often about what they call radical Islamic terrorism, they have remained resolutely quiet about supporting America’s 3.3 million Muslims. Anti-Muslim hate crimes have been on the rise for years. This year alone, mosques have been vandalized and deliberately set on fire and a prominent Muslim civil rights leader has been threatened with assault.
Catherine Orsborn, campaign director of Shoulder to Shoulder, an interfaith organization dedicated to ending Islamophobia, told The Huffington Post that the White House’s focus on “radical Islamic terrorism” highlights a “huge disconnect” between what American Muslims are facing and how the administration is thinking about these issues.
“They’re not demonstrating any level of concern for American Muslims to live in peace and security,” Orsborn told HuffPost last week. “And we need our government to not only speak out against attacks on Muslims, but also show by their actions that they do indeed respect the rights and freedoms of American Muslims as part of the fabric of our country.”
Before You Go
