Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential front runner recently proposed that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States of America:

“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” Trump said in a statement. “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.” – CNN.

However, we do know at least one of the major motivating factors. Former Senator Warren Rudman who served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 1997 to 2000, and who co-chaired a bipartisan commission on national security, in an interview with PBS stated:

“These are fundamentally very, very sick people, who believe it is all right to take thousands of lives because they believe that their basic beliefs and geopolitical views are not being observed by the United States government.” – PBS.

“Are you telling me there are people who disagree totally with our foreign policy? You bet there are. You bet there are. And is it a potential contributor to this problem? You bet it is. Question: What do we do about it?” – PBS.

Former CIA intelligence officer Michael Scheuer, stated that events on September 11th occurred due to America’s “horrid” foreign policy strategies.

Special Supervisor with the FBI, Agent James Fitzgerald, stated:

“At the 12th and final public hearing of the 9/11 commission on 16 June, 2004, in Washington DC, a phalanx of senior law-enforcement and intelligence officials from the US government arrived to offer their testimonies. “You’ve looked [at] and examined the lives of these people as closely as anybody … What have you found out about why these men did what they did?” asked Lee Hamilton, the former congressman and vice-chair of the commission. “What motivated them to do it?” The answers to these questions were provided by supervisory special agent James Fitzgerald of the FBI. “I believe they feel a sense of outrage against the United States”, he said. “They identify with the Palestinian problem, they identify with people who oppose repressive regimes and I believe they tend to focus their anger on the United States.” – NY Times, The Guardian.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research further states that, “civilian casualties in Afghanistan at the hands of foreign troops creates enemies and causes people to become radicalised“. As the report itself states, “In Afghanistan we find strong evidence that local exposure to civilian casualties caused by international forces leads to increased insurgent violence over the long-run, what we term the ‘revenge’ effect.”

Therefore, it’s not a case of “we” having to determine and understand this problem, we already know what the problems are. The research indicates to us what the problems are. As a Muslim, while I myself reject and denounce the barbaric killing of innocents, there is a mountain worth of data available for anyone willing to understand why these attacks occur. His proposal therefore, is unadulterated rhetoric meant to pander to his audience. It has nothing to do with preventing terrorism, or with trying to remedy the issues that contribute to terrorism. His ignorance of the data, does not excuse him from his responsibility to make statements based on rational and informed thinking.

and God knows best.