One of the first things President Donald Trump did after coming to office was to sign an executive order temporarily blocking people from seven countries from entering the US on visas. The list of countries comprises of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen. In all of these countries Muslim are the majority, hence comes the moniker “Muslim ban”.

The aim of Trump’s order is to protect American people from the threat of terrorism but a little look at the history of terrorism in the US proves that he has targeted the wrong countries and instead of helping security it will just help further marginalize Muslim.

A review of the perpetrators of major terror attacks in the name of the Islam in the USA shows that none of them has come from any of these countries. Actually most of the successful terrorist came from the US itself. Faisal Shahzad, the attempted Times Square bomber, was Pakistani-American. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the infamous “underwear bomber,” was Nigerian. The Orlando nightclub shooter who murdered 49 people was an American-born US citizen of Afghan descent. The Boston marathon bombers, who identified as ethnic Chechen, came to the US from Kyrgyzstan and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Richard Reid, whose 2001 attempt to blow up an airplane with explosives hidden in his shoes is the reason we still have to stand barefoot in the TSA line more than 15 years later, was born in the UK to a white English mother and a mixed-race Jamaican immigrant father.

Some of the biggest enemies of American democracy, such as Osama bin Laden and his deputies or the 9/11 terrorists also come from countries which are not included in Trump’s list. Osama bin Laden was a Saudi citizen, the current leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri is Egyptian, 15 from the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one was Egyptian.

Perhaps a better list, if any at all, should have been one including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like