BAGHDAD — Mohammad al-Ani knows Donald Trump. He's been watching men like him rise in Iraq for years. They're the kind of guys who thunder on about outsiders causing all of Iraq’s troubles. They condemn foreigners, or, more subtly, those of another religion, sect, or ethnicity. They whip up public frenzies to target the weak and consolidate power.



“If you want to be president you have to balance all the religions inside your country,” Ani, the 21-year-old engineering student, said. He was spending his Friday morning earning a little extra cash selling books at Baghdad’s Mutannabi Street book market, a relative oasis of cosmopolitanism in a city, country, and region torn apart by conflicts rooted in political, religious, and ethnic differences.

“Look what happened in Iraq,” he said. “It’s what happens when you don’t respect people of other sects.”

The high-profile election campaign in the US casts a blinding light that reaches many parts of the world, especially a Middle East increasingly saturated with satellite television and internet news outlets. The insurgent candidacy of Donald Trump, who has called for a blanket ban on Muslim immigrants and threatened to seize Middle East oil assets as spoils of war, has grabbed the attention of the Arab world. Iraqis, in particular, are both emotionally and materially invested in the election outcome. They resent Americans for the disastrous 2003 invasion and its aftermath, but need US support in the ongoing war against ISIS.

Though few people in Baghdad follow the campaign as relentlessly as Americans glued to 24-hour news networks, Iraqis generally keep an eye on US politics. And as residents of a primary battleground of the sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni gripping the region, they have developed a unique ability to spot a certain type of politician who feeds off hate and fear.

“I believe he has the same thinking as sectarians, extremists, and I don’t like that,” said Rouba Mohamed al-Motar, a researcher and civil society activist in her fifties. As she watched the throngs of people seeking out books or stationery for their children on Mutanabbi Street ahead of the beginning of the school season next month.

“Politicians like him are normal, ordinary — there are plenty like him,” she said. “But he’s trying to become the leader of one of the greatest countries in the world. He criticizes Muslims and minorities. He should be more moderate. He should be balanced.”

Even the worst Iraqi politicians behave better than Trump, said Thawra Seyed Jassim, 39, an economist at the Ministry of Trade. “Trump is a sectarian man,” she said. “He’s against Islam. Yes, there are those like him here, but they are not so obvious. They say it under the table. Frankly, he speaks coarsely to everyone.”