Believing is Seeing. Trump--and his supporters--saw thousands of Muslims celebrate 9-11

Press and pundits are making a big effort to fact check Trump on whether or not thousands of Muslims celebrated on rooftops in New Jersey, watching the destruction of the World Trade Center across the river.

The "fact" that this cannot be confirmed now is irrelevant.   It doesn't matter.  What "really" happened, based on documentation and evidence, is of no consequence.



There was enough reporting on television mentioning Muslim celebrants in the immediate aftermath of the attack, including this CBS report, that Trump will never apologize.   The clip is about 3 minutes.  CBS anchors describe widespread Muslim celebrations.   Stories like this imprinted among people receptive to the message.

https://youtu.be/3auKMHkZJnQ


The story and their commentary has since been shown to be unfounded. But again, the documentary truth is irrelevant.   What is relevant is that a great many people think that celebrations on a rooftop is what Muslims would do, or would want to do.  Therefore, stories of their disloyalty or treachery "make sense".   They are true to the spirit of what American Muslims are really like, even if not to the actual documentable facts.   

Therefore, Trump was accurate and fair "in essence".   

This point was brought home to me in an email I received yesterday from a reader, who passed along a story about Hamas leaders supposedly sending Netanyahu an elaborate gift box, which turns out to contain camel dung, with his comment saying this proves how low class Hamas is.   I responded that the story was untrue and easily debunked, and that since he was a avowed Christian he should avoid bearing false witness, especially since the story was cited to document that Hamas was "low class."   

I asked if Jesus would think it OK to lie about an opponent.   He said yes.

Bearing false witness was allowed, when it was used in the context of "an illustration" to illuminate the truth.   He said he realized the Hamas-dung story was invented but that it was "true" in the sense that Christ created illustrative parables to make a point.   He said it was entirely Christ-like to invent and repeat a nasty story that put Hamas in a shameful light because the story was true in spirit.   

Oh.  

So it makes sense for Trump to stick to his story that American Muslims celebrated the destruction of the World Trade Center because even though facts show the contrary the celebrations were true "in spirit", being the sort of thing some Americans are convinced Muslims want to do.   The story is false as history but true as parable and illustration.   What would Jesus do?  Stick to the story: Muslims celebrated.

Believing is seeing.

Trump has tapped into a significant vein of fear and loathing for "the other", originally Latin Americans immigrants but now focusing more on Muslims.   After the beheading videos and now Paris Americans are anxious.    

Trump still insists that he does not really believe the documentation from the State of Hawaii and two Honolulu newspapers on Obama's Hawaii birth 51 years ago.   Pew polls indicate that Trump never needs to acknowledge those documents:  approximately half of all Republicans say they are 'unsure' whether Obama is actually an American or actually Christian or are sure that he is in fact foreign born and a secret Muslim.   

Republicans may attempt to replace Trump-the-messager, but the Trump message and the Trump understanding of the truth-in-spirit is a very powerful one, giving shape and voice to Americans' fears, especially among the people who turn out to vote in Republican primary elections.