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Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims echoes earliest days of Nazi propaganda: expert
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/guest-column-trump-ban-muslims-wrong-article-1.2459376There are discomfiting echoes in the increasing tempo of Trump's invective against Muslims, his insults toward Hispanics and a disabled reporter, and his encouragement of his fans to rough up an African-American heckler — not to mention his strained relationship to the truth. He has endorsed the dubious claims of the Center for Security Policy, an outfit that claims the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating America from within. Now he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country. Before we call him a neo-Nazi, though, let's look at the record.
When the Nazis took power in 1933, they did not immediately begin a Holocaust in the form of the mass murder of Jews and others they deemed inferior. Instead, they undertook a series of measures designed to separate Jewish Germans from their fellow citizens.
The half-million Jews living in Germany, after all, were as integrated into German society as Muslims are in America today. Many had shed their religious practices, doffed their caps or shaved their beards, and assimilated into mainstream culture. Others practiced their faith in private, or in synagogues that sometimes imitated Protestant churches. Some were successful in business or the professions. Patriotic German Jews like Otto Frank, Anne's father, served their country in the trenches of World War I — just as some American Muslims have risked and lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq while wearing their country's uniform.
Before carrying out a genocide, the Nazis had to exclude Jewish Germans from their own country's public life. They did this in steps. First came legislation excluding Jews from government jobs. Quotas reduced the number of Jews admitted to schools and universities, and placed restrictions on Jewish doctors and lawyers. Then came the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, excluding Jews from holding German citizenship and prohibiting mixed marriages. Jews lost the right to vote or hold public office.
When the Nazis took power in 1933, they did not immediately begin a Holocaust in the form of the mass murder of Jews and others they deemed inferior. Instead, they undertook a series of measures designed to separate Jewish Germans from their fellow citizens.
The half-million Jews living in Germany, after all, were as integrated into German society as Muslims are in America today. Many had shed their religious practices, doffed their caps or shaved their beards, and assimilated into mainstream culture. Others practiced their faith in private, or in synagogues that sometimes imitated Protestant churches. Some were successful in business or the professions. Patriotic German Jews like Otto Frank, Anne's father, served their country in the trenches of World War I — just as some American Muslims have risked and lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq while wearing their country's uniform.
Before carrying out a genocide, the Nazis had to exclude Jewish Germans from their own country's public life. They did this in steps. First came legislation excluding Jews from government jobs. Quotas reduced the number of Jews admitted to schools and universities, and placed restrictions on Jewish doctors and lawyers. Then came the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, excluding Jews from holding German citizenship and prohibiting mixed marriages. Jews lost the right to vote or hold public office.
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Response to KamaAina (Original post)