Donald Trump's administration acts like the Taliban. The only difference? We voted for our leaders 'America, as a nation, must accept responsibility for the emergence of the racist, xenophobic, bigoted and misogynist cult of power also known as the Trump presidency.'

Siddique Malik | The Courier-Journal Opinion

Show Caption Hide Caption New citizens concerned over immigration debate 200 immigrants from 50 countries became naturalized citizens at a ceremony in New York City on Tuesday. Some new citizens expressed concern over the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy on immigration. (July 3)

Recently the U.S. government displayed naked hypocrisy. On June 19, Nikki Haley, America’s representative at the United Nations, announced America’s departure from the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling it "a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights" because countries notorious for human rights abuses are allowed to be members.

Normally one could discuss this departure as a policy matter. And the reality is that this U.N. body has given membership to some rogue regimes, making a mockery of itself. Nonetheless, for the sake of human rights, I would have argued for America’s continued membership in the council. I would have attributed the departure to faulty judgment, not hypocrisy.

America is abusing human rights

However, this column is not about policy options. It’s about the backdrop of Haley’s announcement. She was pretending to be a champion of human rights when her boss was detaining babies and children and deporting their parents, thus splitting these families. Rogue regimes commit such crimes, not democracies.

America’s child-abductor president has now stopped this nefarious practice. But families have not yet been reunited. America must immediately reunite these traumatized families, provide them with professional counseling and help them settle in America. This is the least America can do to atone for its president’s cruelty towards these helpless people.

The mental status of America’s attorney general is as disturbing as that of his boss. Jeff Sessions shamelessly quoted the Bible in his fascist attempt to legitimize child-abductions. His statement amounts to blasphemy against Christianity. Its ugliness reminded me of the terror the Taliban inflicted upon the women who simply ventured outside their homes to make a living or attend school. That cult quoted the Quran to justify these heinous crimes.

We're behaving like the Taliban

There is no difference between a clean-shaven white man in a suit justifying cruelties in the name of a religion and a bearded brown man in a tunic and headgear doing the same. They are both ignorant maniacs whom society must confront and defeat. But there is a world of difference between the two societies in this analogy. One is brutally suppressed by the beasts who control it. Anybody speaking against them faces danger. The other society is replete with freedom and pro-humanity values.

So why is America behaving like Afghanistan? Last weekend’s nationwide protests against government-ordered child abductions are encouraging. But how did America reach the abysmal point when its government thinks it can snatch babies and children from their parents? After all, America is a democracy.

It’s America’s collective failure. No candidate wins an election in America unless he or she appeals to centrists and voters from the other political party. So let’s stop blaming only hard-core Trump supporters and normal Republicans for this collapse of humanism inside the nation’s soul. When the world hears sobs, cries and shrieks of little children snatched from their parents and sees the parents’ tears while Haley talks about human rights, it rightly blames the American people, under whose authority the child-abductors have acted.

The fact that the 2016 popular vote went against Donald Trump is not much comfort. Even with all the handicaps of the Electoral College system, any hate-peddling candidate should have been routed in elections. America, as a nation, must accept responsibility for the emergence of the racist, xenophobic, bigoted and misogynist cult of power also known as the Trump presidency.

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Even after the election, our failure to restore sanity has afflicted many Republican and Democratic leaders alike. They are more interested in securing their individual power bases than ridding America of state-sponsored hatred. Even Democratic leaders are afraid to stand up to Trump; their nominal, benign stances and muted statements notwithstanding.

Americans should do some serious soul-searching and good homework and kick out all cowardly incumbents — Democratic or Republican — in upcoming elections until full cleansing materializes. That will teach these politicians a lesson they need to learn. But if Americans continue to vote without doing basic fact-checking, it’s only a matter of time before they give rise to another un-American, Trumpian rogue regime.

We are America, the name that drives terror in the hearts of dictators and terrorists and gives hope to freedom’s foot soldiers worldwide. Let’s regain that humanistic glory. I say to my fellow Americans: for a long time, we have suggested Muslim societies and communities must act against the bigots, extremists and fanatics in their midst. And that’s a great suggestion. But now, we can set an example, and we must. After all, the Taliban was not elected by its victims.

Siddique Malik is a contributing columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, where this column first appeared.