Donald Trump’s latest mockery of the name Muhammad exposes not only his arrogance and ignorance, but the declining dignity of the American presidency, writes Moulana Uwais Dockrat.
American presidents have spent decades hiding bloodstained hands behind polished speeches. Some could at least articulate the language of freedom and civilisation while pursuing policies that destroyed the very principles they claimed to defend. Their words were often eloquent. The consequences were measured in graves.
By 2023, Brown University’s Costs of War project estimated that between 4.5 million and 4.7 million people had died in major post-9/11 war zones, including those killed directly by violence and indirectly by the consequences of war.
These were conflicts America launched or became deeply involved in. Millions of lives lost while Washington lectured the world about freedom, democracy and humanity.
Blood does not wash off because a speechwriter supplies the right adjectives or because the man authorising brutality wears an expensive suit. Now, even the verbal disguise is slipping.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump, America’s two most recent presidents, offer a humiliating picture of political decline. Their 2024 presidential debate exposed Biden’s faltering delivery and Trump’s relentless falsehoods. Between them, they displayed some of the worst qualities a nation could elevate to leadership.
Trump’s latest remarks about the name Muhammad fit perfectly into that decline.
Speaking at a rally in Georgia on October 16, Trump suggested that anyone unsure of a Middle Eastern person’s name should simply say “Mohammad”, claiming there was a 65% chance of being correct.
“I’ve done it for years now. I’ve never been wrong,” he boasted.
The president of the United States has discovered that a common name is common. Evidently, he considers this an intellectual achievement.
There is something almost impressive about the sheer emptiness of the observation. No insight, no argument, no wit. Just a man repeating a name and expecting his own sense of superiority to compensate for the absence of intelligence.
This is a fool congratulating himself on his cleverness.
His boast makes matters worse. An ordinary person who does not know somebody’s name simply asks. Trump turns his refusal to learn into an accomplishment.
He appears to believe that possessing the power to belittle others somehow removes the need to understand them. It is arrogance masquerading as humour, and it deserves contempt.
And yes, millions of Muslims name their sons Muhammad.
We do so out of love for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and in the hope that our children will follow his example. We want them to grow up embodying truthfulness, mercy, humility, courage and justice.
We give them the name of a man we love, honour and aspire to emulate.
That is the profound meaning Trump managed to overlook while searching for a cheap laugh.
The affection behind the name exposes the smallness of his joke. He encountered an expression of love and reverence shared by Muslims across the world and could think of nothing more intelligent to do than mock it.
One wonders what qualities a parent would hope to inspire by naming a child after Donald Trump.
His humility? His restraint? His honesty? His scrupulous relationship with the truth?
A name chosen in admiration of someone invites precisely that examination. Trump might have considered his own example before ridiculing ours.
The name Muhammad will continue to be spoken with love, honour and reverence in Muslim homes across the world, long after Trump has departed the White House.
His approval adds nothing to that love. His ridicule takes nothing away from it.
The only thing he diminished in Georgia was the dignity of the office he occupies and whatever remained of his claim to deserve our respect.
Trump has access to every advantage, privilege and resource afforded to the most powerful political office in the world, yet still chooses to conduct himself like a fool.
And if I were choosing a Donald as a namesake, I would consider Donald Duck before Donald Trump. The duck, at least, has the excuse of being a cartoon.
