In December 2015, Donald Trump called for a temporary but “total and complete ban on Muslims coming into the United States.” He said that this ban would be in place “until United States representatives figure out what is going on.”
This sounded absurd on its face. He did not say whether or not he was referring only to refugees, or referring to anyone who was Muslim and who was seeking to enter the United States. He didn’t address the current refugee vetting process, which usually takes about two years, nor did he specify whether he was talking about barring Muslim tourists or people who were seeking to live in the United States permanently.
He also didn’t explain how he would determine who was and was not a Muslim. Obviously, there is no way to reliably determine whether someone is Muslim. Many people who live in Muslim-governed nations like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria could be Christians. In the same way that there are many Muslims in the United States (although they are a minority in the United States), there are minority numbers of Christians who live in Muslim-governed nations. So, there is no way to use someone’s country of origin to determine whether or not he/she is Muslim. And there are many Muslims who live in European countries that are not Muslim-governed, but who are Muslim. And although some of the Muslims in the world wish to harm people who are not Muslim, and wish to wage jihad, many Muslims around the world are entirely peace-loving.
Then, in May 2016, after receiving criticism for his lunatic proposal from many, many sources, he said his proposal was “just a suggestion.” He seemed to walk back his proposal, but he didn’t revoke it entirely.
After the June terror attack in Orlando, in which Omar Mateen, an American citizen born in New York state, he doubled down on his ban on Muslims. Apparently, the fact that Omar Mateen was an American citizen born in New York didn’t matter to his “logic.”
Well now, on June 24 and 25, he’s on to something else, another tweak of his immigration proposal. According to CNN reporting, he’s not put forth a fully fleshed out proposal, but he’s now talking about putting a ban on entry into the United States from people “from terror states.” Has he identified these “terror states”? No, he hasn’t. Has he addressed the fact that terrorists can come from European countries, such as France and Belgium, which are not Muslim-governed nations? No, he hasn’t.
So, since he wants to ban people from some countries that are “terror states,” but not people from Europe – although there are plenty of would-be Muslim terrorists and well-known Muslim terrorist cells operating in those non-Muslim-governed countries like Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, etc., his tweaked proposal makes no more sense than his original “ban on all Muslims entering the United States.”
Frankly, since religion cannot be used as a way to identify likely terrorists — nor can country of birth, nor can the country from which someone is entering the United States — it appears that Donald Trump is painting himself into a corner from which he will proclaim that no one born in any country, and no one traveling to the United States from another country should be allowed to enter the United States, whether a refugee, a tourist, or a student seeking to use a student visa. This “ultimate solution” to the problem of terrorism perpetrated in the United States is clearly ludicrous.
Ultimately, and conclusively, the most ludicrous thing about the various positions Donald Trump has taken regarding terrorism and protecting Americans is that all of his proposals, suggestions and ideas completely ignore the fact that the majority of mass shootings and terrorist actions in the United States have been perpetrated by United States citizens who were demonstrably Christian or United States citizens with no religious affiliation.
Trump appears to have completely ignored the fact that the attack on the Murrah Federal Building, which resulted in the deaths of 169 people and injuries to over 600, was perpetrated by a pair of American citizens whoever not Muslim. McVeigh was raised Catholic but appears by credible reporting to have been agnostic. This attack killed more people than any other terrorist act other than the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Let’s see how this plays out.