Epigraph:

Jeb Bush: Trump is a chaos candidate and will be a chaos President, if elected.

Commentary by Zia H Shah, the Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

The one minute opening statement of Senator Rand Paul, in the very beginning of this video, could serve as a prologue to this debate for all the Muslims and open minded non-Muslims.

One could watch the debate with the exclusive focus on how Rand Paul and Jeb Bush condemn the Islamophobic rhetoric of Donald Trump.

The first 15 minutes of the video with my comments here can serve as a good rebuttal for anti-Muslim rhetoric by Donald Trump during the recent weeks, in the wake of Paris and San Bernardino attacks.

Rand Paul seemed to be the main voice of reason among a group of fear mongers to a lesser or a greater degree. He highlighted that today is anniversary of bill of rights and if we give up our ideals, the terrorists would have won.

Governor Christie in his opening used the closing of a thousand schools in Los Angeles on the day of debate to fear monger. Now, details are available that this closure was based on a hoax. Such is the state of fear with 24/7 coverage of the media of such issues, since the Paris attacks, on national television.

As a Muslim, I consider each and every human life to be sacred and precious and consider killing of even one innocent person as an act of triggering a genocide; based on Al Quran 5:32/33.

Ted Cruz in his opening statement complains why Obama does not declare radical Islam as the enemy? There is one simple answer that it creates a false association between Islam and terrorism. I just link one article among many in the Muslim Times to defy such false association: All Terrorists are Muslims…Except the 94% that Aren’t.

In asking question of Trump, Wolfe Blitzer, the moderator, toned down Trump’s rhetoric by suggesting that he was asking for travel ban of non-American Muslims. The fact is that Trump had in his style of broad generalization asked for temporary ban on all Muslims coming into USA. Trump did not correct Wolfe Blitzer and in a way conceded that he had certainly gone overboard, in a moment of zeal to please his base, by suggesting extreme discrimination against all American Muslims.

In this sense the Muslims are reassured that the extreme Islamophobia that was prevailing in the last few weeks and had led to vandalism of scores of mosques in the country will now wane; God willing.

The very first question asked of Jeb Bush was as to why he called Mr. Trump unhinged. Bush called him a chaos candidate and said that he would be a chaos President.

Trump in his response hits back at Bush, but, has nothing to say in defense of his anti-Muslim rant, during the days leading up to this debate.

Suggested Reading

Shariah and Constitution: A Personal Journey

Watching the GOP debate through Muslim eyes