Concerns over US strategy in Indo-Pacific

Assalamu alaikum. Warahmatullahi waqarakatu, everyone. I have to admit that I have a growing concern. It's not reached the point of alarm yet, but a growing concern that The United States may choose to pursue a policy or a strategy of strife instigation in the ASEAN region for the purpose of basically imposing upon the ASEAN region a policy of de facto containment against China, which is a policy that most ASEAN members are not particularly interested in embracing, but everyone knows that that's what America wants. That's what the, what's it called?

The Indo Pacific Economic Framework that they want everyone to sign up for. That's what that's what it's about. It's about containing China, but it doesn't really offer anyone ASEAN anything of substance. So they know that that the chances of getting ASEAN members, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, to sign on to this is I think pretty slim, and I think America must know that. And they must know that this is not in the the the interests of the region, but it's an American desire to contain China, to isolate China, to neutralize, China's presence or influence in this region, and it's not something that they are going to be able to get probably through agreement or consent.

So it may well be something that they will try to pursue through instigating strife and discord. Obviously, one element of that strategy would be to try to instigate a conflict over Taiwan. But another element of that would be to try to sow discord between the various religious groups that coexist harmoniously in this region. And to me, one signal of that is what happened to, Abdul Samad. And that is a signal to me because not because they didn't let him in, because any country has a right to let someone in or not let someone in.

That's fine. But it's a signal because of the reasons that they gave, and the reasons that they gave are disturbing. As I've said many times, the reasons that they gave basically portray mainstream Muslim beliefs as radical and dangerous, and that doesn't sit well with Muslims in the region, and it's a way of sowing discord between religious groups that are have been living harmoniously for decades and for centuries. So, yeah, that's that's something that concerns me. And I hope that the leaders, both in the government and in the private sector, I hope that everyone is cognizant of that possibility.

America does not have a particularly, virtuous history of dealing fairly, justly, equitably, or peacefully with nations or with regions who have things that they want and who do not comply or capitulate to America's demands willingly.