Confused Trump: Terror Attack Occurred in Pakistan’s Town of Sehwan, Not Sweden

By Sajjad Shaukat

New USA President Donald Trump confused the Swedes and Pakistanis in particular and the people of other countries of the world in general by confusing the terror attack in Pakistan’s town of Sehwan with Sweden.

Sehwan is a historic town located in Jamshoro District of Sindh province in Pakistan. It stands on the west bank of the Indus, 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Hyderabad which is the provincial capital of Sindh.

In Sehwan, at least 88 people were martyred and 343 were injured on February 16, this year when a suicide bomber attacked the crowded Sufi Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

But, addressing a crowded rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday night (February 18, 2017), the puzzled President Trump said “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night [February 17] in Sweden…who would believe this?”

Echoing his anti-Muslim approach—the earlier statements like a ban on Muslims, entering the United States, and a visa ban on the seven Islamic countries, Trump elaborated by arguing that European countries were facing terrorists under the disguise of refugees. He stated, “Sweden…they took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris.”

High officials and media of Sweden pointed out the non-existent of any terror attack in their country, as mentioned by President Trump.

Sweden’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Catarina Axelsson said that the Swedish embassy in Washington also contacted the State Department to request clarification of Trump’s remarks and was waiting for an answer.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has asked “what has Donald Trump been smoking?” after the President alluded to a mystery recent attack in the country.

Besides, Swedish people have expressed their bewilderment on social media over President Donald Trump’s allusion to a terror attack in their country, which did not actually happen. Some people remarked that Trump is a crazy man; some wrote that Trump is a mad man and some opined that Trump gave these remarks under the influence of drugs or he was over-drunk.

In Pakistan too, various media analysts, including people on social media declared US President Donald Trump as a confused personality, who has confused the terror assault in Pakistan’s town of Sehwan with Sweden. Some of them have called him a fool or joke. They have raised questions as to how a perplexed person has become the president of the US and as to how he would run the country.

In this regard, a blogger on the website (www.vice.com) wrote, “Many have theorized that President Trump has a tendency to make public remarks based on what he’s seen on television on any given day.

Given this, a school librarian who runs one of Sweden’s official Twitter accounts wondered whether his comments were inspired by an interview aired Friday evening on Fox News with documentary-maker Ami Horowitz, whose recent film argues that there is a relationship between Sweden’s new refugee population and high crime rates…Trump was alluding to terror attacks in Europe to justify his frustration that a federal court two weeks ago blocked the implementation of a controversial executive order which temporarily banned foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.”

However, US President Donald Trump has gone so ahead in manipulating and equating the so-called threat of the Islamic militants and terrorism with all the Muslims that its seems, perhaps, he also sees Muslims in the daydreaming.

Here, it is also notable that western politicians and media always show discrimination in relation to the terror attacks which take place in the US and Europe, and Islamic countries. In this respect, when any terrorism-related incident occurs in the US or Europe, especially their media give a larger coverage and give various developments in this connection for several days. But when such a terror assault takes place in a Muslim country, it has very little coverage.

In this regard, various kinds of terror attacks that occurred in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and particularly Pakistan could not get appropriate coverage as compared to those ones which took place in the US and Europe, while, lives of the peoples of the Islamic nations are as important as those of the white people. Hence, the question arises as to why this discriminatory treatment.

Nevertheless, people all over the world expect that the American president should be a wise person, having statesmanship-like qualities such as diplomatic skill, farsightedness, sobriety, good decision-making power, etc., while working under pressure, during a crisis.

Quite contrarily, body language and way of speaking of the impulsive Donald Trump show that he is guided by an ungoverned temper, and he lacks leadership qualities like farsightedness, wisdom, crisis management, diplomatic skill, etc. He cannot work under pressure, as he has been puzzled over the continued duress of his criticism in wake of perennial protest marches and rallies in America, Europe, and elsewhere in the world—people are raising the slogans that Trump as the president is unacceptable.  In fact, he is neither a politician nor a statesman, as his contradictory statements and anti-Muslim rhetoric display.

Famous thinker of international relations, Hans Morgenthau opines that the external policy of a country should be molded in accordance “with the exigencies and circumstances of time and place” otherwise, there will be “failure of the foreign policy.” It is quite true in the case of the pro-Israeli and pro-Indian Trump who makes decisions in accordance with his personal liking and disliking, favoritism and disfavors instead of the exigencies of circumstances and the concerned country, is likely to commit many follies in the near future, which will further thwart the American foreign policy goals, because, he does not have political wisdom.

Hence, the question also arises, as to how President Donald Trump would make good decisions on the major issues which at present, America is facing internally and externally.

In this context, the most dangerous point is that being the commander in chief of the US armed forces, President Trump can issue an order of nuclear attack on any rival major power like China and Russia or any small country like Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan, which would envelop the entire world.

Sajjad Shaukat

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is the author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations and can be reached at sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

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