On January 20th, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn into office as the 45th President of the United States, a somber image of hate and xenophobia attaining the highest office in America. It took President Trump a mere week to turn his xenophobic rhetoric into an executive order. Executive Order 13769, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” was signed on January 27th and was meant to deny entry of citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days as well as suspend all admission of refugees for 120 days. The reason cited for this executive order were concerns for national security due to the rise of “Islamic extremism,” while a new method of vetting immigrants is developed. However, I would argue that this executive order does nothing to protect US citizens from harm and only further feeds the growing xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiment that Donald Trump has helped normalize with his campaign.
Why do people call it a Muslim ban?
Proponents of the executive order refuse to call it a Muslim ban. They often cite the fact that countries that have the highest Muslim population in the world, such as Indonesia and Nigeria, were excluded from the ban. And while this is true, it ignores the developing racialization of the label “Muslim.” Media and many right-wing politicians use the term “Islam” and “Muslim” to describe Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. Muslim is repeatedly associated with extremists in the Middle East. As a result, many people within the West use certain visual indicators to categorize, or rather racialize, people into the group of “Muslim.” These indicators include brown skin, bearded men, Middle Eastern accents, head-coverings, the Arabic language and more. As usual for racialized groups, these indicators are so broad that they often include people who don’t follow Islam while also being so specific to exclude huge groups of the people that do follow the religion. For example, because they wear turbans in accordance to their religion, Sikh individuals often face the same discrimination as Muslims, despite being in an entirely different religion. Furthermore, Southeast and East Asian Muslims are often excluded from the racialization because they simply aren’t associated with the extremism. I often hear that Islam is the root problem when it comes to extremists, hence why ISIS and other similar groups should be called Islamists or Islamic extremists. However, this statement ignores countries like Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population and yet, is not a threat to US national security.
The reason I refer to the executive order as a Muslim ban is because it targets a specific, racialized group of people that the Western world sees as representative of Muslims. This fact has been repeatedly disputed by proponents of the Muslim ban because governmental discrimination based on race or religion is unconstitutional. This blatant discrimination opens the door for courts to overturn the ban and allow the affected individuals to enter the country, which has already happened in several states, such as New York. Furthermore, the executive order specifically prioritizes Christian immigrants from those areas, showing clear religious discrimination within the policy.
Isn’t this about America’s safety?
Although the reason cited for the ban revolved around national security, everything about the Muslim ban contradicts that statement. Proponents of the Muslim ban claim it will keep Americans safe, but since 2001, no immigrants from the seven listed countries have been involved in domestic terror attacks. Furthermore, the countries where the 9/11 hijackers were from, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, are not included in the ban, despite the claim that the ban would prevent another similar attack. It is also important to note that the Trump Organization has active business ties with the countries that were excluded from the ban. This becomes even more pertinent when we must remind ourselves that President Trump has not placed his assets in a blind trust, as is expected of presidents with business affairs. He put his children, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr., in charge of his company, despite all three having obviously close ties to the government and the President. As it stands, President Trump can and has made presidential decisions that benefit his company so it would not be farfetched to assert that he purposefully left out countries important to the Trump Organization when drafting the executive order.
Another important fact to note, which often gets overlooked in talks about extremism, is that Muslims comprise the majority of victims of extremism. In 2011, the US National Counterterrorism Centre reported: “In cases [in the Middle East] where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 percent of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years.” Muslims have always suffered at the hands of these extremists, which is why many Muslims don’t even consider ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haraam, and all the other extremist groups as Muslim. And despite this, Western media often portrays Muslims as terrorists or sympathisers, often causing Western Muslims to face discrimination and even violence.
By feeding into Islamophobia, this executive order only further fuels extremist propaganda. ISIS wants Muslims across the world to view what’s happening in the Middle East as a holy war between the depraved West and Islam by convincing them that the West hates Muslims. Pushing that narrative can make some Muslims feel conflicted about their view of ISIS. If what they say is true, how can a Muslim knowingly side with the West, a world that hates them? This can make a Muslim hesitate and that’s all ISIS needs to continue committing crimes against humanity and indoctrinating people into their cause. Canadians and Americans cannot put their countries on a moral pedestal and still commit acts of discrimination that only further incites violence in the world.
Don’t immigrants bring crime with them?
The Pew Research Centre has repeatedly disputed this assertion. As you can see above, first-generation immigrants are actually less likely to commit crime across all ages. Second-generation immigrants have the same likelihood to commit a crime as native-born individuals, which has been attributed to exposure to similar environmental factors as the native-born population. The idea that immigrants are predisposed to crime is partially due to disproportionate and biased media coverage and the nearly constant barrage of false narratives by politicians and political groups. The most topical example is of President Trump’s wall of Tweets and statements about immigrants and crime, which validates the xenophobic notions amongst the US population. Furthermore, it’s become very easy for anybody to publish an article or blogpost with skewed facts or tidbits of information taken out of context and for people to immerse themselves in a sociopolitical bubble, surrounded only by people and media that agree with them. It’s important to expose yourself to conflicting ideas and navigate all the information that’s out there, separating fact from alternative fact.
In conclusion
We live in a world of both information and misinformation at our fingertips. Nothing should be taken at face value. It is our duty as citizens of the First World to be informed and engage in the political process because our actions directly and indirectly impact other parts of the world and other people who may not necessarily get a say in the matter. While land, sea, race, and religion may separate us, we as human beings all want the same thing: to live life on this Earth while we can. Tolerance and open-mindedness are fundamental to prosperity, while hate and fear threaten it. Donald Trump and his administration may want you to believe that immigrants and Muslims are synonymous with crime, death, terrorism, and evil, it is our responsibility to set the record straight. The Muslim ban is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and a harbinger of fascist regimes like we’ve seen throughout history.
“Never Again” is now.
This author, Maryam Yunus, is a young woman in a STEM field who is not afraid to talk biochemistry and social justice in the same conversation and definitely wants you to donate to the ACLU to help those affected by the Muslim Ban.
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