The Muslim Ban

Trump claims his travel ban is in no way a Muslim ban. We know this is untrue because:

• Trump himself referred to it as a Muslim ban prior to the election. Trump promised a Muslim ban to hooting crowds of bigots during the campaign.
• In an interview, Rudy Giuliani explained how Trump asked him to create a legal version of his Muslim ban. He explained he came up with selling a religious ban as danger by selecting certain countries rather than targeting Islam specifically.
• Trump excluded Saudi Arabia, home of the 9-11 terrorists, and Dubai, home of a Trump hotel, plus other Muslim countries where Trump does business. This travel ban is not about safety. This is about screwing Muslims who did not kowtow to Trump.
• Trump gave waivers to Christians.
• Trump uses hysterical rhetoric to convince American that all Muslims are likely terrorists. This is ridiculous since there have been zero terrorists from his banned Muslim countries.
• Trump encourages discrimination and vigilante violence against Muslims. He dismisses Muslims who died while serving in the American forces.
• Trump tries to block Muslims from building mosques. Trump’s supporters are Christian Triumphalists who are working hard to turn the USA into a Christian theocracy. They perceive Islam as their biggest rival because, like Catholicism, Islam has mandatory breeding to spread the faith. World wide, Islam is the #2 religion.
• Trump blocks all kinds of Muslims who were not refugees who were legally in the USA.
• In appeals court, Trump argued immigrants had no constitutional rights so he could discriminate against Muslims if he felt like it.
• Trump enacted the ban with no warning to cause maximum inconvenience and cost to Muslims. Some were in the air at the time the ban was enacted. They landed and were stripped searched and sent back all without any explanation.
• Trump tried to sell his ban to four different federal judges. They all said no.

The constitution says there may not be a religious test for any reason. Trump tried to do an end-run around that. Further President Johnson’s 1965 Hart-Celler law forbids discrimination based on country of origin.

What Trump is doing is reminiscent of Hitler. Hitler started with harassing Jews. Then he started throwing them out of the country. Then he confiscated their property. Then there was Kristallnacht. Then there were the trains to the holiday camps. Muslims have good reason to be nervous about Trump flouting the constitution.

To my great joy, one judge rescinded the ban, and another refused Trump’s appeal. Trump referred to the judge as a so-called judge. If Trump were not the president and he said that in court, Trump would be facing some jail time for contempt of court.

Why is Trump doing this? For the same reason Hitler did. Every demagogue needs a scapegoat on which to blame anything that goes wrong and the source of any unflattering story about him. By Trump teaching followers to fear Muslims, they cling to him as rescuer and ignore his faults. Followers also fear and obey him, wondering if they may be the next targets of his wrath.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)