I grew up in Albania, a little Balkan country bordering Greece and Italy. All Albanians are taught to love the US and we all want to live the “American Dream”. But it seems like the American Dream is no longer what we thought it was because the US is straying away from being the ideal place, the one we all dreamed of going to, where freedom is awaiting us. We all thought this ideal place would be safe and secure for all of us who wanted to pursue the “American Dream”, but apparently we’ve been lying to ourselves all along. With candidates like Donald Trump running for president, things seem to be going downhill rather than uphill.

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US...” said Donald Trump in his campaign in San Bernardino, California on December 7th, 2015. He did not give details about how Muslims would be identified, but he did not exclude special IDs in order to ban all Muslims from entering the US, “until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on”. In the final Republican debate of the year in Las Vegas, Donald Trump went on about Muslims saying: “They’re not coming to this country if I’m president. And if Obama has brought some to this country they are leaving, they’re going, they’re gone.” Donald Trump doesn’t realize that at the moment Muslims are not an international threat, he is.

Trump has further on implied hatred on Muslim by saying that “There’s a lot of hatred there that’s someplace. Now I don’t know if that’s from the Qu’ran. I don’t know if that’s from someplace else but there’s a tremendous hatred out there that I’ve never seen anything like it. So, you have two views. You have the view that Qu’ran is all about love and then you have the view that Qu’ran is, that there’s a lot of hate in the Qu’ran.” He should take a step back, and really understand what Qu’ran is actually about. If he would actually read the Qu’ran, Trump would find out that in a way he’s contradicting himself. In Surah (Chapter) 41, verse 34, it’s written, “The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better; then verily he between whom and you there was enmity (will become) as though he was a close friend.”

After all, it seems like Qu’ran doesn’t have the kind of hatred Trump speculated about. It actually says that if someone has done something bad to you, in return you do them well. There is no reason why Donald Trump should be hating on Muslims and constantly talking about banning us all from entering US territory. Islam is a peaceful religion, and US citizens should start seeing through Trump’s declarations and start understanding that America’s future is at risk when it’s handed over to Donald Trump. It’s not only America’s future that is in danger, the whole world’s future is in danger, bringing this international peace we have created under potential threat.

The “American Dream” is not what it used to be. With Donald Trump winning and having a big shot at being the next Chief in Command, the ideal place US used to be is rapidly changing. Not for better, but for worse. When Donald Trump says “Unfortunately, at this moment in time, there is a Muslim problem in the world,” but he should really say “Unfortunately, at this moment in time, there is a Donald Trump problem in the world.” We should really think about where Donald Trump is heading us. Assuming that all Muslims are the same is truly sceptical and insane. Trump’s motto for this election tells the Americans to make the “right” choice and “make America great again”, ironically, voting for Trump would lead the country down another path, making America an actual “ hell hole”,what Trump said about America’s current condition to Megyn Kelly, on Fox News on May 20th, 2015. I had never thought a country I grew up loving would turn out to be my worst nightmare.