# Is America losing its place in the world?

*America in crisis: losing its global standing and soft power*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/s/7/
- Date: 2020-07-10 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Shaykh Omar Baloch | Cynicism, Consumerism & the Catch 22 of Riba | Mindtrap with Mufti #30 (22:55–27:25)
- Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCe73zqCi_I&t=1375s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/

**Topics:** Current events commentary

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest argues that America is in an internal crisis and has lost the soft power of alliances and credibility that matters more than military strength.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth recaps the coherence discussion and asks the guest, as someone active in his community, about the challenges he sees in the United States. The guest says America is in a precarious internal crisis while determining its future, and shows a Politico piece on experts who knew a pandemic was coming and nine disasters they fear next. The guest says many academic papers now argue that America will never be the same and has lost its ability to assert itself globally, an internal debate over whether it should police the world involving think tanks such as the RAND Corporation. Asked by Mufti whether America does not still have power, as Britain did after its empire, the guest says real power is economic power and the soft power of alliances and credibility, and that Donald Trump has fallen out with African countries, Europe, Russia and China.

## Sources and names cited

- Shaykh Omar Baloch
- RAND Corporation
- Donald Trump

## Transcript (machine tier, 22:55–27:25)

[22:15] so yep awry so let me just bring up the people's Chuck if sugar and this one yep this are not nice I know this I don't know I see well I was just saying to share you fix one problem and see this is live people this is what they call life it says Mike Tyson says everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face all right so this is it I sit down have this all figured out and there you go a new problem but it's all good right so sure Omar off on for that sure tell us a bit

[22:54] about you know you you you've you were telling us about your studies and the dynamic and the kind of dynamism that there was they in this whole looking at the coherence of the Quran which is taking a kind of zoomed out approach and how this was in essence a response to maybe certain critics of Islam saying there was a lack of cohesion within the Quran keeping that thought in mind coming back to where you are right now which is the US of A the United States at the good ole land of the free and the

[23:32] and the brave and so ha what do you see today as some challenges yeah I mean you're somebody very active in the community and we were discussing a bit of this before but tell us about some of the struggles you're seeing today in the Muslim world or in the know in America especially with Dean and then by extension the status quo yeah this is a very difficult question because America is in a crisis where it's determining its future um is is is very very difficult and it America is in a very

[24:12] precarious situation in a big crisis internally when you say crisis just to be clear what are you people can see that sighs mutters loudly it's just a monk so when you say crisis shift that America's go through I'm gonna share a little bit about that the first thing that comes to my mind is the some of the academic papers that are being written right now let me see if I can share some

[24:49] of them here with you um but there are there are academic papers that are clearly talking about one of them is here I don't know if you can see here it says experts Noah pandemic was coming he is what they worried about next nine disasters people the nine nine signs people the nine signs so this is in political magazine this was published I don't know if you've heard a political magazine it's very popular here it's like mainstream okay but but these

[25:28] people and others I can point them out if you're interested but a lot of academic papers arc or openly saying now that America needs to face the fact that it will never be the same again it's it's lost its status quo it is no longer in a position to to assert itself politically the way it has set itself away globally is that what we're speaking about yeah okay so this has been one of the internal debates within American academics and American politics is that should America playing the role of policing the world or not right so

[26:07] this has been one of the internal debates and so you have something tanks like my RAND Corporation you have other think tanks like the the counts in the foreign policy and and like some some the conservative there's a conservative think tanks are more like no you know we need to kind of like step back but I mean it still has the power still has that position or we know are we saying it doesn't say that you know at some point even after the the the collapse of the British Empire Britain still had power right I mean they still have power there it's their nuclear weapons are not gonna go anywhere but the real power is economic power and

[26:46] the real power is the power of alliance is the power of credibility right it's the soft power that matters more than your military power I mean you you have for example economics is more important than military the soft power of political alliances getting along with everyone I mean there's not a person in the world that Trump hasn't these negative things about all the African countries I mean yeah he didn't rub off too well with Europe he definitely didn't rub off too well with Russia you know and then China

[27:24] has problems with its justice here everybody's like but you know in some ways I was reading we were chatting about this one day and I was saying that don't you feel that especially like maybe this is more a guy thing here like maybe like how always see the world don't you kind of feel that this the way Trump is doing things is how many boys would idealize to rule the world like they would you know it's he just has this attitude of like I don't give a

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment wCe73zqCi_I/s/7. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/s/7/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.