Unrest and protests continued for a seventh straight day in the former British colony of the United States as the government vowed to use its military to end the demonstrations, US media reported on Tuesday.
The protests began in the small province of Minnesota, located in the agrarian ‘Middle West,’ over the killing of an ethnic minority by state security forces.
Protests led by the minority ‘black’ community have erupted throughout the country with the minority group calling for equal rights and better treatment from the government. Protesters have set fire to government installations and looted buildings throughout the country as clashes with security forces continue. The security forces have tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets and batons but to no avail.
US President Donald Trump, who was ‘elected’ in 2016 despite the majority of votes going to his rival candidate, vowed in a speech to bring in the military to end the protests.
“I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said in a national address.
Trump used the opportunity to walk to a religious temple in the national capital Washington DC to proclaim his religious affiliation. Holding a Christian bible in his hand, Trump declared the US “a great nation.”
Religious Fundamentalism and persecution of minorities
Religious fundamentalism and minority suppression has long been a problem in the former British colony.
The United States has had a long history of suppressing and persecuting its various ethnic minorities since the country gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1776.
The treatment of its indigenous ‘Native Americans,’ its imported Asian and Black communities, and its Hispanic community has long been a source of friction.
American black minority groups were under a program similar to South Africa’s Apartheid policy until as recently as 1964. Today, the ethnic black community is still detained and killed with impunity by the state security forces and black Americans make up the majority of those incarcerated under the country’s archaic judicial system.
Religion also plays a major role in governance with religious beliefs separating key state organs including the country’s highest court where many social laws are passed based on the justices personally held religious convictions.
[Disclaimer: Native Americans is in quotations because it is a blanket term used by the ruling class of the US to call the country’s original inhabitants before the Anglo-European invasion. The ‘Native Americans’ are comprised of thousands of tribes, all with their own culture, language and traditions.]