NO WAY! Not another protest. This time over the Syrian/Muslim refugee crisis. Trump issued an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim countries from coming into this country for 90 days. He also halted the Syrian refugee program for another 120 days. This has caused more than your everyday uproar. People have taken to the street calling this order illegal and using their favorite word “discriminatoryâ€. So let’s break down both of these.
We will begin with looking at whether this order is legal or not. U.S Code 1182 states this
“Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”
If we apply this to our current situation we realize that nothing in this order is illegal. Trump as President of the United States has the right to suspend the entry of illegal aliens and can do so without the approval of Congress.
Now we can move onto the issue of this order being discriminatory. In order to deem if something is discriminatory we must first understand the word. The best way to understand a word is by looking at the definition of it.
Discriminatory – Â making or showing an unfair or prejudicial distinction between different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
Now if you don’t understand the word fully I can see where people see this as discriminatory. There is no doubt that this order surrounds one group of people. Those people coming from around the same areas of the world. With that being said, there is one word of our definition that pokes holes in the posed theory of discrimination. That being the word “unfairâ€. It is a fact that global terrorism is predominately of people who claim to be Muslim. It is also a fact that global terrorism stemmed from one major part of the world. That being the Middle East and parts of Africa. So is it really unfair to deem that terrorists are predominately Muslim and that they come from the Middle East? No of course not. So as you can see the very word that is used to attack Trump’s Executive Order actually can be used against them. It is important for people to realize that just because an order only affects one group of people doesn’t mean this group is being discriminated against.
The New York Times and Huffington Post both thought it would be good to stir the pot a little more. Both thought they were clever and decided to print articles speaking on the fact that Trump avoided countries that he has done business in. Well it strikes me as very odd these articles left out very subtle facts on how Trump picked these countries. The seven countries selected (Iran, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen) actually weren’t even identified by President Trump. These countries were selected by Barrack Obama. In 2015 Obama signed into law restricting Visas from 38 countries. Four of these countries were Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. Fast forward to 2016 and Obama added three more countries to this list. Can someone guess which countries those were? If you guessed Somalia, Libya and Yemen then you are correct. So the very countries Trump is attacking are the countries that Obama himself deemed as threats. Iran, Sudan and Syria all are countries that currently fall on the State Departments list of countries that sponsor terrorism. While the other four countries all are on lists as countries that are safe havens for terrorists. So as you can see the selection of countries as potential threats goes  a lot deeper than what the New York Times decided to print.
We now move onto Saudi Arabia. This country has been a terrorist hot bed for years. Many of the terror attacks on this country have been carried out by people from this region. ISIS’s roots link back to Saudi Arabia. Many of Saudi Arabia’s laws match up with ISIS ideology. So why did Trump keep them off the list? Well that explanation is simple. In order to begin to destroy ISIS we must first destroy the place of its inception. Trump has held phone conversations with the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman. During these calls Trump requested increased support from the Saudis in their counter terrorism effort. King Salman agreed. They will support refugee camps in Syria and Yemen as well as help U.S Coalition forces fighting in Iraq and Syria. Trumps vision with Saudi Arabia is to help them create a secure and stable nation and hopefully that rubs off on the rest of the region. It may be a longshot but the U.S cannot defeat terrorism without help of Muslim world.
People are also ignorant as to the strength of ISIS in these areas. ISIS is as dangerous of a group of terrorists as we have seen. They are far more than what Al-Qaeda was. ISIS is an ideology. It is an ideology that wants one thing; that one thing is an Islamic State. This Islamic State was something Al-Qaeda never achieved. Sadly, ISIS/ISIL has achieved this in two major areas. Iraq and Syria. Within these areas, they control far more than any Terrorist organization before them. They control wealth, food, infrastructure and most dangerous of all education. They use extremist material to help promote their agenda all over the Muslim world. These people know nothing of America’s true intentions and instead are brainwashed to hate the western world by these extremists.
I want to make sure everyone is clear on my thoughts on people from these regions. I am by no means stating that all Muslims are terrorists. I’m not stating that all the people from these regions are terrorists either. But amongst them are extremists plotting to commit terror attacks throughout the United States. I’m empathetic to the many good people in those countries who seek a better life and hopefully, in time, we can find a way for the good intentioned Muslims to find our way into our country and prosper, just like other immigrants from many countries have done during the last century. Let’s not forget the events of 9/11 and other horrific terrorist attacks all over the world. The American Government must protect American citizens and we must have confidence in our Government to do this. This ban is in place for 120 days. After these 120 days, the American Government should begin to vet these people properly and make sure only the people with the intent on being upstanding citizens reach our nation. I hope after this 120 day period we finally begin to weaken the group of extremist we ourselves created. I am praying that we begin to educate people in these areas on the true aspirations of the United States. We cannot reach these goals until the extremists have been taken care off. This is not a fun situation for anyone but sadly it is a necessary step to not only make a safer America but a safer world as a whole.
