Last week I wrote about the damage that a uni-dimensional view of our identities, assumed and imposed, can cause. Linked to this is the damage caused by a monolithic view of other countries and their politics.

Donald Trump is selling fear and prejudice in the US in a remarkable way. Trump may or may not be a prejudiced man himself but, like a good salesman, he knows how to sell fear and prejudice to the consumer public. He invokes ownership, of ideas and spaces, to call upon people to rally behind him in his attempt to pick on vulnerable communities. Keeping the Muslims out of the US does not win Trump the election but it does help him convince his supporters that he is in touch with their fears. He then validates collective fears by clothing it with legality and state action.

As far as immigration is concerned, Trump is not entirely wrong that he can pull off a policy of requiring registration of Muslims. As many commentators have said, classifications in immigration law and policy are areas courts often leave to the judgment of the executive. If he comes to power, he might well get away with enacting his policies as valid law.

While we may disagree with Trump, we must resist temptations and invitations to see America in a monolithic light.

America’s greatest strength comes from the fact that the most powerful and nuanced criticism of its laws/policies comes from within the United States. The strongest opponents to Trump’s plans have been Americans -- these include Republicans, Democrats, civil society leaders, human rights groups and a sitting President. Many in Pakistan and across the Muslim world will be rubbing their hands with glee at what Trump says. If Trump appeals to his voters’ prejudices, so do many in Pakistan to further the argument that America is an evil imperialist empire -- at odds with values of human dignity. Trump and the hate-mongers in Pakistan play the same game: telling their own that those who are different are necessarily our adversaries. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These messages of division must be pushed back against and resisted. Just because a certain number of people in the US support registration/profiling of particular communities does not mean that America’s politics is based on this. The diversity of viewpoints on this issue within the US must be highlighted. It is not just important for Americans to point this out but for us to do so here in Pakistan as well. Hate and fear will only stop selling as a currency when enough people refuse to accept it as valid tender. Democracies such as India, America and Israel (often painted as our greatest enemies) represent diverse viewpoints -- with a large number of people in each country pushing back against ideas that sell fear, prejudice and division.

Our tragedy is common -- and it is shocking how often we forget this. We in Pakistan feel that "the West" (and I by no means endorse using this blanket term) ignores the vitality and nuance inherent in the life of Pakistan. Yet we forget this when dealing with societies that we are trained to see as "the other". This only happens when brainwashing is so effective that it prevents us from seeing people living in other countries as humans. As individuals just like us, with their own ideas, views, dreams and hopes. How can we assume that while we are diverse as a people, and the loudest within our borders do not necessarily represent the majority, other countries are somehow monolithic in their intellectual make-up?

Leaders like Trump bank on the fact that those he deems "the other" will have enough people in their ranks to jump onto his bandwagon and claim that the divide between "us" and "them" is too great to be bridged. Hence while Trump demonises Muslims, in ways direct and indirect, the same treatment is then applied to the US by many in Pakistan. This becomes a vicious cycle where each side then tries to outdo the other in violence of thought, language and ultimately action. The damage to millions of counter-viewpoints, hopes, dreams and aspirations in this process is immense. It also takes away from the beauty of one-on-one interactions between people from different cultures. Before even the first handshake we start second-guessing the strength of the bond humanity: ours and theirs -- common.

It is also ill-advised to respond to Trump’s speeches through rude responses or engaging in the same name-calling that he thrives on. While these tactics may make us feel powerful in our own little bubbles, they do not help the larger discourse in any way. It is far more important to ensure, and this is an enormously important responsibility, that our responses to such rhetoric clearly point out the problems with such ideas -- and then provide solutions. Degeneration of discourse is what Trump and hate-mongers in Pakistan rely on. Rationality is their enemy therefore they do their best to ensure that the discourse remains essentially a shouting match. Hence creating a space away from the shouting and filling it with public reason and humanity is our best bet to further ideas that defeat the politics of fear, hate and division.

I am often accused of being naïve about the United States -- so be it. But I am equally naïve about our common humanity and the promise that it holds. I am equally naïve about hopes for Pakistan that things can get better. As a Pakistani I am always inspired by the fact that politics of hate within the US often meets a powerful response from ordinary citizens within the United States.

A recent example of this being an anti-Muslim group’s protest outside a mosque which was responded to by an almost equally large number of people from the same area --forming a human chain around the mosque to send a message of peaceful co-existence and equal citizenship. One citizen speaking up for the rights of another.

America is not perfect but neither are we. America is not without politicians selling fear and hate -- and we definitely cannot claim to be free from that. It would help to remember that we are all in the same fight of ideas: wanting a world based on division or ensuring that we look past the hate and connect as human beings.

We must fight the good fight.