LAHORE: Pakistani American from Boston Shahid Ahmed Khan says though Donald Trump of the Republican Party does not represent mainstream feelings in American society but what he has done is very dangerous.

He was talking to a group of journalists as a chief guest in a discussion at the residence of US Consul General Zachary Harkenrider here on Thursday.

Khan is not only a distinguished member of the Pakistani American community in Boston, Massachusetts, he is also a businessman and has been a fundraiser for John Kerry.

“Donald Trump has been generating a lot of negative news and understandably many Muslims, including Pakistani Muslims, are concerned,” he says.

He clarifies that there are always a handful of people who tend to tilt towards the extreme right wing. Trump is not a party leader per se and many Republicans have distanced themselves from him. It seems highly unlikely that he becomes a nominee, he adds.

To a question whether Trump’s propaganda against immigrants and other marginalised communities had brought about a dangerous trend in America, Khan says, “Unlike before when people did not speak in the exact words that Trump uses, some of them are now beginning to find words for their radical sentiments”.

He says 20 to 25 percent of the American Muslims are indigenous African-Americans, but not counting them, 50 percent of the Muslims, including Pakistanis, are counted among the affluent. They are in the top economic tier of the country and live a life of more privilege than even most indigenous white Americans, he reveals.

“The US is a melting pot – a major distinction from the EU, and discrimination I would say is not inherent within the Americans. Every citizen has equal rights and similar concerns. No one is different. They are all part of the system.”

Talking about Islamophobia, it seems that a little rise in its trend has occurred over the years, Shahid Khan admits.

“Terrorism is everyone’s concern, including all the peace-loving Muslims who live in the US. There has been a paranoia against the Muslims too which is again not a dominant sentiment and it is present in small pockets.

“The Obama administration has brought about the CVE Initiative (Combat Violent Extremism) which is helping understand why young people are straying towards this kind of violence. But it is not being taken as a religious problem, it is being treated as a psychological issue,” he says.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2016