Femi Abbas
Monologue
This article is a reminder of an article written and published in this column by yours sincerely on Friday, January 20, 2017, in which I predicted what would become of the United States of America (USA) at the instance of that country’s newly elected President, Donald Trump before the end of his first term. The article was entitled ‘Welcoming a Trump of Sadism’.
Two weeks before the publication of that article, an earlier article had was written and published, also by yours sincerely, in this same column. It was entitled ‘Waiting for January 20’.
Excerpts from both articles can be found below as follows:
Like the hands of a clock, many democratic countries in the world do swear a new President into office every four or five years at the expiration of a previous tenure. Now, it is the turn of the United States of America to do that again. And the man to take White Houseas from today, January 20, 2017, for the next four years, all things being equal, is called Donald Trump, a man that most people in the world, including Americans, who voted for him, have seen as a wild bull surging furiously into a china shop.
In an article entitled ‘Waiting for January 20’ and published in this column two weeks earlier, yours sincerely cited the example of Adolf Hitler’s oath of office and his inaugural address of 1933 that culminated in the World War II which started in 1939 and ended in 1945.
The dramatic events within that period of 12 years (1933-1945) were the main determinants of today’s world history”.
The above quoted excerpt was from the article entitled ‘Welcoming a Trump of Sadism’.
Another Excerpt
Below is also an excerpt from an earlier article entitled ‘Waiting for January 20’ and published on January 6, 2017, in this same column by yours sincerely. Its contents went thus in part:
“All eyes, across the world, are on the 20th day of January 2017. That is the day that the new America’s President elect, Donald John Trump, will be formally ushered into the ‘White House’ in Washington, with a swearing in ceremony. He will be the 45th American President. That the entire world is waiting for this event is a confirmation of America’s undisputed leadership of the contemporary world. There is no doubt that this event will be historically electric positively or negatively. A similar wait had taken place in February 1933, in Germany, where a Nazi magnate, Adolf Hitler was sworn into office as the Chancellor of that country. The speech he delivered that day eventually altered the destiny of Germany and reshaped the geography of the world. Incidentally, Donald Trump’s ancestral origin is Germany.
Now, will Trump of the 21st century come out like Hitler of the 20th century to put the world on the path of another World War? That is a major question that the unfolding events of the days ahead may need to be answered fundamentally.
The Meaning of Trump
The name TRUMP is a short form of trumpet, a musical instrument with which the decision of a tyrant is often announced in a local cultural setting. Ever since he was declared the winner of the American Presidential election of November 2016, this Trump has been trumpeting his tyrannical plans to the world arrogantly. And, the jitters rolled out from that trumpet have started gripping the world with an imaginary icy hand. That an American President elect had begun to overrule his still serving predecessor even before taking an oath of office is a clear indication of what the world should expect from the china shop in which a wild bull will start to operate as from today.
History as a Teacher
History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. Its students are always drawn from far and near. It examines those students from time to time and gives them examination results periodically. Its lessons are as generational as they cut across races and cultures. Yet, it has no peculiar communication language. But then, history faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in the repetition that has characteristically become its culture but, rather, in getting mankind to understand its repeated teachings as well as in heeding its warnings.
In virtually all celestial religions, history plays such a prominent role that gives it the permanent identity of a teacher. And, from its beneficial teachings, human beings build ladders of experiences with which they mount the pyramids of life, sometimes to the peak.
Christianity and Islam
Despite the seeming brutal gangsterism being vaingloriously displayed by the goon called, Donald Trump, the Muslim world is hereby advised not to write him off completely as an agent of the Lucifer.
In the histories of both Christianity and Islam, we are repeatedly told of certain arch antagonists of God’s divine message, who dramatically turned round to become voluntary Ambassadors of the same message to which they had been viciously antagonistic. One of such antagonists was Saul of Tarsus, an avowed anti-Christ who dramatically turned round to accept the message of Jesus after the later had vacated the scene of this world. Saul later adopted the name Paul as a symbol of his new apostolic faith. That was in the Bible. Another known antagonist of Allah’s divine Message was Umar Bn Khattab of Makkah who had plotted the murder of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but dramatically turned round to embrace Islam on the very day he was to practically implement his plot. Eventually, Umar rose to become the second Caliph in Islam and he conscientiously spread Allah’s divine religion across nations and continents even more than any other Caliph.
Jesus’ Wish
Jesus had wished that Saul, a well- educated Jew, accept his message while he was around. But that wish did not materialize until after his departure from the stage.
However, if Saul had not eventually accepted Christianity when he did, perhaps, the situation of that religion would have been completely different today.
The Case of Umar
In the case of Umar Bn Khattab, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prayed the Almighty Allah to enable one of the two famous persons bearing Umar in Makkah at that time, to accept Islam.
Although the Prophet’s mind was on the other Umar, It however turned out that Umar Bn Khattab was the one Allah’s favour magnetized. And, Umar Bn Khattab’s acceptance of Islam became so remarkable that the Prophet was reported to have once said of him as follows: “Were there to be a Prophet after me, Umar would have been that Prophet”.
Irony of Life
Today, another thorny bud seems to be wildly growing under the armpit of an American bitter tree in the 21st century. That proverbial human bud is an avowed racist and morbid hater of Islam that emerged as President in that country in 2017. His physical appearance alone, anywhere, is a vivid reminder of the unbridled atrocities of a onetime originator of Nazism, Adolf Hitler, who brutally terrorized the entire continent of Europe for about a decade.
And, for the first time ever, majority of Americans who voted to choose Trump as President started to express fear of uncertainty about their choice even before he formally assumed office.
Thus, from the beginning of his four year presidential tenure, Trump had been perceived as an incubated egg waiting to be hatched. However, the kind of chicken that would come out of that incubated egg was a matter of guess. Nevertheless, such a perception in 2017 might have been too early in the day for the eagerly agitated Americans. After all, the cited cases of Saul and Umar still remain very validly influential on contemporary history.
Future Shock
From the foresighted perception of yours sincerely, the narration above was a virtual indicator of a future shock that the world was waiting to grapple with after the 2016 American Presidential election.
Now, the ongoing occurrences in the United States, besides COVID-19, have come to vindicate my perception. The only aspect of that perception that is still eagerly awaiting vindication is what will eventually become of today’s sadistic Trump.
Curious Questions
Why was it after the conversion of Saul, that the Greek Empire and, subsequently, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as official religion? Why did the whole Arabia wait for Umar Bn Khattab to embrace Islam before it formally accepted that divine faith as her State religion? And, by analogy, shouldn’t America be getting ready for a similar eventuality? After all, centuries of religious practice in America have proved that Christianity is just a decoration with which Americans have been trading in fun as a mere symbol of public association. That fun has now virtually dwindled to its lowest ebb. And, in reality, nothing remains of Christianity in America today beyond name.
In Retrospect
It sounded odd in the yore, when speculations began to indicate that Rome could adopt Christianity as State religion. It also sounded unbelievable that the whole Arabia could adopt Islam as official religion following the reversion of Umar. But reality eventually prevailed and, today, the rest remains a property of history.
In the same vein, far from prophesying, I foresee a day, in a foreseeable future, when America will become the home of Islam and give that genuine divine religion the Impeccable reality of life that it deserves in the West. In reaction to this millennial prediction, as it happened in the Roman and Greek Empires of yore, the Nigerian doubting Thomases of this era may commence their repugnant arguments from here. But those who will engage in any argument on this assertion should remember that the roots of tomorrow’s gargantuan tree of peace are already being firmly planted in today’s fertile soil as it happened in Guantanamo, USA, recently.
The Guantanamo Bay
Terry Holdbrooks Junior is an American native of Huntsville in Alabama. He grew up a troubled kid with junkie parents that dumped him at age 7 on his ex-hippy grandparents to be raised. By 18, he’d completed both high school and trade school which is suggestive of brilliance on his part. But along the line, he indulged in drugs, illegal sex and tattoos which covered his arms from shoulder to wrist. His earlobes were stretched to a plug that a thumb could pass through.
Thus, when he walked into an Army recruiter’s office in Arizona a year after 9/11 saying he wanted to join the Army, to be able to kill people and get paid for it, the recruiter looked up briefly and turned back to his computer saying “No, thank you”.
Finally, it was only during his fourth visit to the recruitment office that he was allowed to take part in the military’s aptitude test when the recruiter realized the potential in him. Then, Holdbrooks signed up for the military police because it offered a bonus. And when his unit was transferred to Guantanamo, the sergeant detoured through New York to take them to Ground Zero where he told them to “remember what Muslims did to us and who you are supposed to protect”.
Thus, the 29 year old Terry Holdbrooks Jr., enrolled in American Army in 2003/2004 and was posted to Guantanamo Bay as a military Police officer in a detention camp earmarked for people pronounced as criminals. Part of his duties was not just to prevent those detainees from escaping but also to escort them to interrogation rooms and then return them to their cells. He knew the kind of stresses and tortures those detainees were undergoing in repeated questionings.
How Islam beckons
All along, Holdbrooks Jr.’s perception and understanding of Islam was not dissimilar from those of his military colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay. However, one day, the thought of accepting Islam as a rightfully guiding religion crossed his mind after several months of conversation with some Muslim detainees in that camp.
Before he became a Muslim, Holdbrooks was wearing the beard of a bald Amish guy, the tattoos of a punk kid and the twitchy alertness of a military policeman. Take him to a restaurant, and he’ll choose the chair with its back against the wall. Take his photograph and he’ll prefer to look away from the camera. That was Holdbrooks before 2013 when he embraced Islam.
He took Shahadah
After three months of intensive study and conversation, Holdbrooks told the Muslim detainees one night that he wanted to become a Muslim. And in response, the detainees explained the implications of that to him. They said: “Converting to Islam means you would have to change your life style including your diet. You will quit drugs, drinking, profanity and tattoos. Then, be prepared for good relationship with everybody – wife, neighbours, the Army and the government”. Thus, little by little, Holdbrooks made the changes as he found a measure of health, discipline, family and peace of mind which he never had before.
“If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were to come back to the world today, people would find the best examples of Islam in the United States. American Muslims have a responsibility to live their faith so that others can see a true example, not the perversions of the terrorists or the tyranny of corrupt governments. He concluded that: “For every little step I took toward Islam, Islam was taking more steps toward me”. Thus, the man who was employed to quench the glow of Islam became a propagator of Islam in America.
The same President Donald Trump, who is innately persecuting Islam and the Muslims today may become like Holdsbrooks tomorrow. Allah’s way of doing things is full of wonders. Nothing is impossible with Him.