On June 13 2016, New York Times published an editorial Orlando and Trump's America written by Roger Cohen. In the editorial, Roger Cohen expresses his concerns towards terrorist activities such as the most recent tragedy in a Gay Club in Orlando that left 50 dead and many more injured. The shooter, Omar Mateen, aged 29 and American citizen of an Afghan descent, has "set a spark to a time of inflammable anger" in both politics and in the American people. According to Cohen, Mateen did much more than wrongfully take the lives of many people; he ushered “the world into a downward spiral of escalating violence,” and has forced America to review the terrorist activities.
Mateen was not the first to bring Islamic terrorist activities. Roger Cohen supports his argument by bringing in evidence and other past events like the murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam. Claiming that the Obama Administration failed to control these patterns of terrorist activities by ‘doing nothing’ in fear of worsening the conditions, Cohen argues that the activities would eventually bring support to the Trump’s call for a temporary ban on non-American Muslims entering the United States.
Although Cohen mentions that calling jihadi terrorists “violent extremists” is true but entirely inadequate ;calling them in such ways is like “calling Nazism a reaction to German humiliation in World War I”. Cohen, also clarifies that “It is poisonous to blame all the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims for this crisis of their religion”. Although I agree with Cohen in that the activities of a small group of Muslims should not define and discriminate the whole Muslim race, I do not believe America should sit still waiting for another attack.
Cohen’s argument was convincing; we shouldn't discriminate Muslims as a whole but we cannot be vulnerable and sit still while the situation worsens. In some aspects, Cohen is speaking directly to politicians, urging them to take a step forward, and to american citizens to support his argument.
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