Trump's Muslim Ban Irrational, Counter-Productive, Unconstitutional

Dear America,

Since half of this country seems to be confused, allow me to explain a few things about this Muslim travel ban:

Yes, it is a ban. Trump promised a Muslim ban repeatedly as a candidate, yet now that he’s doing it, you want us to not believe our lying eyes. (I thought y’all were the straight-talkers who weren’t worried about being “politically correct”) Trump isn’t even bright enough to keep up the charade, as he calls it a ban everyday on twitter. Spicer has called it a ban numerous times. Giuliani bragged on Faux News that Trump went to him for the framework of a Muslim travel ban. Trump assured the Christian Broadcasting Network that his Executive Order includes a special carve-out for religious minorities (Christians & Jews) coming from the seven applicable countries. It doesn’t apply to India or Indonesia – counties with the largest Muslim populations. It doesn’t apply to Saudi Arabia – where people are beheaded every Friday as a matter of course, and where the vast majority of 9/11 hijackers, cited in Trump’s EO, came from. Instead, it applies to poor Muslims countries where there aren’t any Trump Hotels, but plenty of “Made in America” bombs being dropped on the heads of innocent civilians.

This ban has nothing to do with terrorism. It is about fear-mongering, xenophobia, and nativism. Immigrants and refugees are not a threat to us. Trump doesn’t even know the difference – he keeps calling the Syrian refugees in Australia “undocumented immigrants” because he is in intellectually incurious imbecile. He often says that we let people that we don’t know come here without paperwork. In fact, we have the most stringent refugee process in the entire world – taking upward of 18-24 months. And natural-born citizens are far more likely to commit crime than those who come here. Probably because they are people who had the courage, gumption, and wherewithal to make it here in one piece. Their economic and cultural contributions are immeasurable.

If we were truly concerned about terrorism we would be scrutinizing white Christian males, not immigrants and refugees. Trump simply wants to equate terrorism with Islam. He is doing ISIS’ job of characterizing this as a religious war between Christianity and Islam. Trump is forcing Muslims across the world to choose between their cultural identity and ours. We cannot win that battle with bans and bombs, but with blue jeans and hip-hop. They don’t need our form of government forced upon them if they don’t want it. They don’t need to hand over their natural resources at whatever price we demand. They need education. They need jobs. They need investments in infrastructure. They are aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters who have the same wants and needs as everyone else in the world. Instead, we invade their countries, kill innocent civilians who we refer to as collateral damage, lock them away and torture them without charge for decades, and claim that they hate us simply because they hate us.