Visiting Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has fiercely condemned leading Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump for his provocative and embarrassing anti-Muslim rhetoric. He expressed his views in a recent interview , saying that the latter’s posture against Muslim immigrants only feeds into the negative, sharply anti-Muslim sentiments of a small section of the american population.
The prime minister referred to Donald Trump as “the shame of our civilization” and said the latter’s negative anti-immigrant and particularly anti-Muslim views are intended to exploit a lack of awareness of many fellow Americans regarding the Muslim faith, which in itself is a cause for embarrassment for many of the American people.
In a recent interview with FP, he criticized Donald Trump’s highly exploitative political tactics, which he employs to secure the GOP nomination.
“I would very much hope that he would understand that what he’s talking about is not at all a way to make America great again but is embarrassing America in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of all that see America as the shining city on the hill. He is exploiting a void of lack of information, lack of education, [and] lack of culture about religions, about faiths. Europe has its own Donald Trumps here and there that came before Donald Trump that practically embarrassed Europe with their views on immigrants, with their views on Muslims, with their views on the union itself. You have Daesh and you have this kind of, you know, coldblooded extremists on the other side of the coin. It’s incredible.”
Referring to his own country as a shining beacon of interfaith integration and goodwill, Rama claimed that his country’s long history of peaceful inter-communal co-existence goes on to refute many of the inflammatory assertions that some popular figures in the west, including Donald Trump, have come to be associated with.
This is by no means the first time that the republican presidential front-runner has been slammed for blurting out callous and incendiary remarks directed against America’s immigrant communities. Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and expelling Mexican immigrants from its borders has drawn considerable worldwide criticism.
Both democratic presidential front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have also repeatedly blasted Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim utterances. While Sanders slammed Donald Trump for distracting the American people away from real issues with largely schismatic rhetoric, Clinton dismissedher outspoken rival’s remarks directed against purposely “singled-out” communities as embarrassing, dangerous, and contrary to American values.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama, while addressing a joint session of Congress, also condemned the politics of targeting people based on race and religion.
“This isn’t a matter of political correctness — it’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith. When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as other British politicians, had also vociferously condemned Donald Trump’s remarks, with the Prime Minister deeming the latter’s vitriolic outburst as “divisive, unhelpful, and quite simply wrong.”
Albania is a small, mountainous country situated in the Balkan peninsula, housing a Muslim majority population ever since the time of Ottoman rule. Christians make up roughly 20 percent of the country, and comprise predominantly Orthodox and Catholic denominations. Having assumed office in September, 2013, the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, has enjoyed a diverse political career, with its origins associated with the movement for democracy that triggered the fall of the communist regime in Albania. A towering political figure, he has made major contributions to the arts, sports, and education in his country.
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