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Executive Editor: Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Chronology of Islam in America (2017)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
September 2017 - page three
President Trump's Muslim Ban 3.0 outrageous
Revised travel ban raises concerns among travelers and civil rights advocates
Sept 25: The Trump Administration’s revised travel ban raises a lot of questions and concerns among many Americans. It now bans or restricts travel from eight countries but the new ban still faces legal challenges just like the old version. Aziz Abul is waiting for his parents and family to return from their month-long vacation to Jordan. He chose not to go with them. “Especially when people are coming from the Middle East, they go through a lot of things. I decided not to go through all of that,” said Abul. A revised travel ban now restricts travel from eight countries. Besides Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea have been added to the list. The changes take effect Oct. 18. Supporters of these bans or restrictions on foreign travelers says it will enhance national security. Jasmine Samy, the civil rights director with CAIR-Council of American Islamic Relations, disagrees. “There is huge amount of anxiety. I feel that we are back to march when it happened. There's going to be a huge impact, and the community has been impacted negatively,” said Samy. In some cases, the administration is suspending immigrant and non-immigrant travel. In other cases, it's allowing travel for non-immigrants with added scrutiny. On Oct. 10, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear a challenge to the original order. But today, the Supreme Court called it off. It's now asking both sides to weight in on whether the issue is moot. CAIR says it won't stop fighting. “We knew this might happen,” said Samy. “We will not stop. People's lives are at stake. Families are at stake. And, at the end of the day, we want every person to feel equal.” [KOMONEWS.COM]
Trump's New Travel Restrictions: Still A Muslim Ban, Still Outrageous
Sept 25: What's new about the travel restrictions the Trump administration announced Sunday night is that this version includes the unimpressive fig leaf that they apply to a certain extent to Venezuela and North Korea, which are not Muslim-majority nations. It is as if Trump issued an order to ban blacks from the Cabinet but then added Venezuelans and North Koreans. It would still be just as racist. Trump's proclamation Sunday night banned indefinitely almost all travel from seven countries, including most of the nations covered by his original travel ban in January. It bars most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea from entering the United States. Citizens of Iraq and some limited groups of people in Venezuela who seek to visit the United States will also face restrictions or heightened scrutiny. Chad, North Korea and Venezuela are new to the list. Sudan has been dropped. Otherwise, it's the same old wine in a new bottle. No one travels from North Korea to the United States, so that is almost a joke. The Venezuelans singled out are officials of the Maduro regime. It is hard to see what difference is made in the nature of the list by swapping Chad for Sudan. (Chad, by the way, is 55% Muslim.) Many experts are scratching their heads as to why the White House chose to single out Chad. Trump’s proclamation does little to cure the legal flaws in his two preceding travel bans. The prior versions were knocked down by two trial courts and then two courts of appeals. (The Supreme Court on Monday canceled oral arguments scheduled for October and asked the involved parties to file briefs as to how the administration's new travel ban impacts the cases). The primary original sin of those two bans lay in Trump’s personal statements that he would ban Muslims, that is, that he would target a particular faith and de-legitimate it using the power of the White House. In the third version, the president is still targeting a particular faith and de-legitimating it using the power of the White House. [By Charles Tiefer- Forbes]
Senator Merkley's Comments on Trump’s Muslim Ban hailed
Sept 26: The Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Oregon) today applauded Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) for his statement condemning the latest iteration of President Trump’s Muslim ban. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Sen. Merkley said in part: “Don't be fooled by Trump's weak attempts to bury criticism that his ban is discriminatory and unjust. While he may have changed the fine print, make no mistake: This ban is still a smokescreen for the same kind of discrimination we saw in the original Muslim Ban. Just like the old ban, the new ban threatens our core values as a nation of immigrants, doesn’t make us any safer, and will tear families apart.” [CAIR]
232 Groups, 6 Elected Officials Demand Trump Administration Rescind ﾑMuslim Ban 3.0
Sept 27: 238 national and state immigration and civil human rights organizations, law offices, educational institutions, elected officials, and faith based groups sent a joint letter to President Trump and Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke demanding that the administration rescind its latest iteration of the unconstitutional and discriminatory “Muslim ban” executive order. The joint statement was in response to President Trump’s Sunday (Sept 24) signing of the executive order “Proclamation Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats.” In the joint letter, the coalition said: “We, the undersigned community leaders, elected officials, and community-based, civil society, and civil rights organizations, hereby demand that you promptly rescind your Proclamation Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats (‘EO-3’), your administration’s latest attempt to fulfill your campaign promise of an unconstitutional ‘Muslim Ban.’ This order, though more sophisticated than its predecessors, is just as transparently illegal." [CAIR]
Baltimore Sun: Still a Muslim ban
Sept 27: The latest travel ban issued by the Trump administration marks the third time the president has issued proclamations attempting to fulfill a 2015 campaign pledge to stop Muslims from entering the country. Mr. Trump’s first two efforts were blocked in whole or in part by the courts as unconstitutional because they were a clear outgrowth of his stated desire to discriminate against travelers based on their religious beliefs. His most recent revision is hardly an improvement despite its transparent attempt to gloss over the religious animus behind it. It’s a “Muslim ban” in all but name that still unconstitutionally targets people on the basis of religion, and unlike the previous versions, this one is permanent. [Baltimore Sun Opinion]
Trump’s Muslim Ban 3.0 is still unconstitutional
Sept 28: After federal courts struck down Donald Trump’s first two Muslim bans, his functionaries crafted a third one. In an attempt to withstand judicial scrutiny by convincing the courts it is not really aimed at Muslims, Trump’s new travel ban (Muslim Ban 3.0) cosmetically adds two countries — Venezuela and North Korea — that do not have Muslim-majority populations. Nevertheless, the new ban suffers from the same constitutional infirmities as the first and second Muslim bans. Trump’s second ban, which had included slight changes from his first one, was issued on March 6 and expired on September 24. It restricted travel to the United States by nationals from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan.The new ban, issued by Trump in a “proclaimation “ on September 24, restricts travel by most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea. It bars everyone from Syria and North Korea from obtaining visas. Nationals from the other six countries will be subjected to varying additional security checks. Iranian students are exempted from the ban. It also forbids Venezuelan government officials and their families from traveling to the US. This newest iteration, like its predecessors, violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by prohibiting nationals from eight countries, including six with Muslim majorities, from traveling to the United States. During the presidential campaign, Trump clearly stated his goal of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” That goal apparently continues to motivate his latest mean-spirited and unnecessary travel ban. Muslim Ban 3.0 discriminates against people from all eight countries on the basis of national origin, which violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The United States has ratified both treaties, making them “the supreme law of the land” under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. [By Marjorie Cohn - Huffington Post]
ACLU: Trump's travel policy still a Muslim ban
Sept 29: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced today it will challenge President Trump's latest version of his controversial order banning travel from several countries. The organization's executive director, Anthony Romero, accused Trump of adding North Korea and Venezuela to the now eight-nation list in order to cover up the "original sin of the Muslim ban." “President Trump’s newest travel ban is still a Muslim ban at its core, and it certainly engages in discrimination based on national origin, which is unlawful," Romero said in a statement Friday. "Adding a few North Koreans and a tiny group of Venezuelan officials doesn’t paper over the original sin of the Muslim ban. We’ll see President Trump in court — again.” On Sunday, Trump announced the newest version of the travel ban, which sets increased restrictions on foreign national entering the U.S. from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.The new list was issued the same day that Trump’s previous 90-day ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority nations was set to expire. U.S. officials maintain that the list is based on states that failed to comply with U.S. information-sharing requirements that aim to make vetting processes stronger. “As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,” Trump said in the announcement. "We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet," he added on Twitter. [ACLU]
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