Firasha Shaikh analyses President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban move and opines that only in the unity and cooperation of the Muslims can there be hope to save humanity from the abyss in which it is falling.
We often lament that it has become characteristic of politicians to never fulfil their promises. All of us, and especially the American people, felt like eating their words when the first politician to fulfil his promises became Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America. Following up on his campaign promise of ‘a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’, on 27th January, Friday, with a stroke of his pen, Trump enforced an executive order that barred citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries namely Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days.
The ban also completely suspends the United States’ Syrian refugee programme, which accepted 12,486 Syrians in 2016. It also gives preference to accepting Christian refugees from the Middle East over Muslim refugees. And it reduces the cap on the total number of refugees allowed to enter the US in 2017 from 110,000 to just 50,000. Outrageously enough, the ban also includes resident green card holders, pre-approved refugees, students, workers holding visas, and even dual nationals. Confusion and chaos reigned at universities, businesses and especially, airports. Multiple people from the said countries who had flown to the US were held at airports while others were barred from boarding flights or were pulled off planes overseas and many were detained at airports.
Keep hope alive
During this crisis, the heart-warming response of the American people will go down in history as they extended their support to their Muslim brothers and sisters. By Saturday evening thousands upon thousands of protestors had gathered outside JFK Airport as well as 10 other major airports, including Dulles, LAX, San Francisco, Denver and Philadelphia. They shouted slogans, carried placards, provided physical and legal aid for the people who were stranded at the airports, formed a protective human chain around them as they offered Salah (prayer), expressed their dissent to the media and created awareness about it on social media.
And they didn’t stop there. Washington’s attorney general sued the Trump administration in federal court, claiming irreparable harm from the ban and asking for a temporary nationwide restraining order blocking it. With multiple lawsuits against the ban working their way across the country, the Washington state district court judge finally suspended the ban nationwide with a temporary restraining order thereby allowing the continuation of travel to the US from the affected countries.
The fuming Trump team asked a federal appeals court for an emergency ruling to overturn the Washington state court decision. The appeals court, based in San Francisco heard arguments by lawyers representing both the government and Washington state. Much to the jubilance of millions of Muslims and Americans around the world, on 9th February the appeals court declined to block the Washington judge’s restraining order, saying the government has provided no evidence of any threat posed by travellers from the countries in question.
An outraged President Trump vowed vengeance (he didn’t actually say that, but given his recent tweets, would you be surprised if he did?) in a tweet that indicated he would try to review the appeals court decision. However experts say that he might not hold up on that due to political reasons. 9th February decision simply put: Democracy-1, Jingoism-0
Claim versus truth
Donald Trump has said that the seven affected countries were identified by Barack Obama’s administration as “sources of terror”. Also, the ban would give time to put in place ‘extreme vetting’ measures. He said: “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe.” There are many contradictions with his statement and his actions. First off, if these seven countries are supposedly ‘sources of terror’ then why not include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt? Because interesting note, 15 out of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 (the worst terrorist attack carried out on American soil) were from Saudi Arabia!!! In the past 15 years since, NONE of the perpetrators of various terrorist attacks in USA have belonged to the targeted seven countries!!
In fact, the country home to the biggest number of terrorists who have carried out successful attacks inside the US is the US itself. The San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 people was carried out by an American-born US citizen of Pakistani descent and a lawful permanent US resident of Pakistani descent. The Orlando nightclub shooter who murdered 49 people was an American-born US citizen of Afghan descent. The Boston marathon bombers, who were identified as ethnic Chechen, came to the US from Kyrgyzstan and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before carrying out attacks that left three dead. Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, was born in Virginia to Palestinian parents. The real threat to America isn’t from people entering the US.
ISIS is using its brainwashing propaganda to spread their ideology and radicalise young men already living in the West. The FBI says that as of September 2016, approximately 1,000 “potential homegrown violent extremists” were under surveillance across all 50 states. As far as threat from refugees is concerned, data from Cato Institute, a think tank that conducts research on terrorism, shows that the risk of terrorism from immigrants is astonishingly tiny-one in 3.64 billion, to be precise. Alex Nowrasteh, a leading analyst and researcher on terrorism, concluded after extensive research: “Of the 3,252,493 refugees admitted from 1975 to the end of 2015, 20 were terrorists, which amounted to 0.00062 per cent of the total, of the 20, only three were successful in their attacks, killing a total of three people.”
US Homeland Security and FBI data shows that more Americans were killed by right-wing white extremists than by Islamic jihadists. Lastly, extreme vetting already occurs. For example, Syrian refugees wait an average of 18 months to 24 months before being admitted to the United States. The 21-step screening process goes through multiple agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.S. State Department, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Applicants undergo two and sometimes three interagency security checks to make sure nothing disqualifies them for admission to America. Refugee applicants also undergo a comprehensive medical examination to ensure that they don’t have a contagious disease. Refugees continue to be screened after they arrive in the USA.
In fact, the government has a special programme called the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Programme that can delay refugees’ and others’ applications for years based on alleged national security concerns. Several immigrants have had to sue the U.S. immigration agency to get their cases out of this black hole. The bottom line is, banning people from a few Muslim-majority nations will not reduce the terror threat, much less eliminating it. Given the present reality, it would be hypocritical of Mr. Trump to say that his ban has nothing to do with religion. If he really wants the safety and security of the American people, he should start with himself by changing his jingoistic narrative, stop misusing his power of office, start putting in place better cybersecurity to check propaganda and perhaps most importantly – reach out to minorities instead of isolating them.
What Next for Muslims?
The fact that Trump administration attempted to have a Muslim Ban exposes their frightening level of deep-seated prejudice and hatred against the entire Muslim community. With the anti-Islam rhetoric threatening to engulf the whole world (MODI-fied India, Brexit, upcoming France elections, etc.), with the sharp increase in hate crimes in the USA since Trump’s win, with the emboldening of white supremacists (which most recently, resulted in the Quebec Mosque shooting), all the Muslims, especially the youth, need to realise that the only way to defend the future of the Ummah is to unite together. We must focus on common ground instead of focusing on differences. We must develop good relations with all our countrymen and women, especially non-Muslims. The repeal of the draconian Muslim Ban is our first victory in this direction. Only in the unity and cooperation of the Muslims can there be hope to save humanity from the abyss in which it is falling.