The Muslim Ban: Validating Terroisim

On Friday, President Trump issued and Executive Order that put a freeze on immigration of people from terrorism-prone countries, including Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This new order dictates a 90-day vetting period for Muslims trying to enter the country, in order to weed out terrorist, who may be disguising themselves as refugees. Using safety as a main pillar of support, this ban is one of the first steps in executing his platform of tightening border security. The Head of State also dictated that Christian immigrants would now be prioritized for admittance over those, who are Islamic. This was the moment, where the entire nation shook their heads. Increased vetting, keeping the border and the people of the country safe, could be easily supported, if it was done the right way; however, the introduction of this ban, and the inclusion of prioritization, is giving the terrorist exactly what they want.

Let’s think about the theorized motivations of terrorism. Some say it’s something inherently present in the Islamic religion. We know better than that. There are millions of Muslims living peacefully around the world, not to mention the endless history of terrorism that has nothing to do with religion. Those, who have studied society and history, know that terrorism is as old as government itself. Throughout all of the historical instances of terrorism, from the anarchists of the early 20th century to the Islamic terrorism we experience today, one common theme runs through them: power through fear. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion, rather religion is simply a tool used by terrorists to muster support. Osama Bin Laden did not care about Holy War and condemning the west for its culture; he went to Europe, saw how much more advanced it was then Saudi Arabia, and wanted a piece (eventually all) of that power. He saw an opportunity to take the religion of the people in the Middle East and use it to demonize the West. Islamic terrorism painted us as bigoted sinners and oppressors to muster support from everyday people to take power and control of them.

If you take note of this, the logic becomes obvious on how a ban on Muslim immigration represents a fundamental misunderstanding of terrorist groups. They don’t want us to welcome and accept Islamic people. They want us to hate them, because it plays right into their hand. They feed off of that hatred to rally more support for their disgusting cause. A ban will only muster more hate for the west, which in turn gives more power to the terrorists. This isn’t to say there shouldn’t be screening for terrorism. Safety should be very high on the priority list, but a ban is not the way to do that. The United States has some of the top intelligence agencies in the world. The agents are trained to and efficient at finding and stopping terrorism, and should be able to do it in a shorter time than 90 days. Instead of banning these people, we should put more resources into interviewing incoming refugees and screening out the people that pose a threat. The worst possible thing to do is to shut ourselves off and prioritize one group above another. That will lead to more resentment and more attempts to break down our way of living.