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Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Thursday hit out at radical Islam, equating it with a terrorist movement, even as he called for eliminating hyphenated identities like Indian-American.
Jindal, the first Indian-American Governor of any American state, is scheduled to address the Henry Jackson Society on Monday in London; his office released a preview of the speech, even titling the press release ‘Governor Jindal to Expose Truth About Radical Islam’. Asserting that he didn't believe in hyphenated identities, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has said that his parents came to the US from India four decades ago to become Americans and not Indian-Americans.
He also spoke bluntly about what he called “the elephant in the room”.
“Now, let's talk very directly about the elephant in the room…that is, allow me to discuss the recent horrific events in France,” Jindal’s speech says. “I will warn you in advance that I'm going to say some things that are not politically correct, so brace yourselves. To be clear, I have no interest in defaming any religion, nor do I have any interest in assigning the maniacal acts of radical Islamists to millions of Muslims worldwide.
Slamming the existence of no-go zones in Paris that are Muslim majority areas where residents largely look to internal resolutions to troubles based on the Sharia rather than go the French judicial system, Jindal said “But we will never allow for any sect of people to set up their own areas where they establish their own set of laws.
“We have to stop pretending that right and wrong do not exist. For example – Sharia law is not just different than our law, it's not just a cultural difference, it is oppression and it is wrong. It subjugates women and treats them as property, and it is antithetical to valuing all of human life equally. It is the very definition of oppression. We must stop pretending otherwise,” Jindal is what are likely to be the most hard-hitting statements against radical Islam by any major US politician so far.
Jindal, who is a rising star in the GoP, is also likely to run for US President in 2016; however, he will face bruising fights in the primaries against former contender Mitt Romney and, in what seems to be a growing possibility, former Florida governor and Bush scion, Jeb. If he crosses those hurdles, he could still end up facing the formidable Hillary Clinton in the elections.
His remarks, therefore, could be seen as positioning himself to talk frankly about global affairs, an area in which he has not been very vocal up until now.
“A so-called religion that allows for and endorses killing those who oppose it is not a religion at all, it is a terrorist movement,” Jindal said of Islam, adding that “I do continue to believe and hope that most Muslims oppose these bloodthirsty acts of terror. But that is not the point. Whether they do or not, the point is that radical Islamists do advocate the slaughter of those who reject their views.”
Making a case for freedom, Jindal said “Free peoples everywhere must not pretend otherwise and must not coddle those who hold these views. And they must have courage.”
Describing freedom as the ability to debate everything –religion, policy, politics, everything – Jindal said that when such debate stops and a movement decides to silence and kill those who disagree with their ideas instead of debating them, “it is called terrorism, barbarism, and inhuman behavior, and it cannot and must not be tolerated”.
“Let's be honest here, Islam has a problem,” Jindal said. “If Islam does not support what is happening in the name of Islam, then they need to stand up and stop it. Many Islamic leaders argue that these are the acts of a radical few. Ok, it is their problem, and they need to deal with it.”
Virtually throwing down the gauntlet to leaders of the Muslim community on disowning radical Islamists, Jindal said they must “make clear that anyone who commits acts of terror in the name of Islam is in fact not practicing Islam at all. If they refuse to say this, then they are condoning these acts of barbarism. There is no middle ground.”
“Specifically, Muslim leaders need to condemn anyone who commits these acts of violence and clearly state that these people are evil and are enemies of Islam.
“It's not enough to simply condemn violence, they must stand up and loudly proclaim that these people are not martyrs who will receive a reward in the afterlife, and rather they are murderers who are going to hell. If they refuse to do that, then they are part of the problem. There is no middle ground here,” he said
In the other major theme of his speech, Jindal invoked his ethnic heritage to make a call for immigrant assimilation and called people who talked about skin pigmentation as the 'most dim-witted lot' around.
"My parents came in search of the American Dream, and they caught it. To them, America was not so much a place, it was an idea. My dad and mom told my brother and me that we came to America to be Americans. Not Indian-Americans, simply Americans," Jindal said in a prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver next week.
"If we wanted to be Indians, we would have stayed in India. It's not that they are embarrassed to be from India, they love India. But they came to America because they were looking for greater opportunity and freedom," Jindal said, explaining the reason why he does not like to be called or described as an Indian-American.
"I do not believe in hyphenated Americans. This view gets me into some trouble with the media back home. They like to refer to Indian-Americans, Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and all the rest. To be clear - I am not suggesting for one second that people should be shy or embarrassed about their ethnic heritage," he said.
"I am explicitly saying that it is completely reasonable for nations to discriminate between allowing people into their country who want to embrace their culture, or allowing people into their country who want to destroy their culture, or establish a separate culture within," he said.
"It is completely reasonable and even necessary for a sovereign nation to discriminate between people who want to join them and people who want to divide them. And immigration policy should have nothing at all to do with the colour of anyone's skin. I find people who care about skin pigmentation to be the most dim-witted lot around. I want nothing to do with that," he said.
Jindal said his objective in this speech is to speak clearly about what he believes to be America's proper role in international affairs; to speak bluntly about the nature of the threats being faced and the recent tragic events in France; and to suggest what he think is the way forward.
