NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said Wednesday that Donald Trump spreads fear much like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Trump is ISIS’s greatest triumph,” he wrote in an op-ed for Time magazine.
{mosads}“[He is] the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS’s job for them,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
“Trump’s irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric and deliberate propagation of misinformation have created a frightened and hostile atmosphere here that could embolden people to violence,” he added of the GOP presidential front-runner.
“He’s the swaggering guy in old Westerns buying drinks for everyone in the saloon while whipping them up for a lynching.”
Abdul-Jabbar then argued that Trump’s supporters are equally guilty, having rewarded his incendiary remarks with surging polls.
“They are impervious to facts or truth because their (understandable) frustration and anger at partisan greed and incompetence have fatigued them out of critical thinking,” he said of the billionaire businessman’s backers.
“To express their outrage, they have rallied around a so-called ‘outsider’ with no political experience, no detailed policies, and wacky ideas that subvert the very Constitution that he would be required to swear to uphold,” Abdul-Jabbar added.
“Electing him would be like asking the clown at a child’s birthday party to start juggling chainsaws.”
Abdul-Jabbar, a Muslim, additionally took issue with Trump’s controversial remarks on his religion earlier this week.
“Trump’s claims that he might support registering Muslims as well as calling for a ban of Muslims entering the United States — even U.S. citizens abroad — have elevated him to the level of a James Bond super-villain,” he wrote.
“And like those villains, he is doomed to failure. This cruel and dim-witted thinking is not the stuff presidents are made of.”
Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S. late last Monday. He said the temporary measure is a necessary precaution against potential Islamic terrorism in the homeland.
The outspoken billionaire’s proposal has earned bipartisan condemnation from critics who say it is impractical and unconstitutional.
President Obama, meanwhile, in a speech on the abolition of slavery Wednesday, warned against abandoning the nation’s diversity.
“We betray the efforts of the past if we fail to push back against bigotry in all its forms,” he said at the U.S. Capitol.