by Eze Eluchie,
The
bombastic that he is, when Donald Trump as a candidate for the US Presidential
elections was announcing at virtually all his campaign stops that he would, if
elected, ban all Muslims from travelling into America, many an observer felt
that such gross talk was merely to key into the base sentiments of the
so-called middle-class fellows who had been abandoned by globalization and felt
a need to ‘retrieve their America’ from whosoever.
The candidate
is now POTUS and to the consternation of the international community, what had
been thought of as mere campaign rhetoric has been signed into an Executive
Order which bans travel to the United States of America by nationals of the
following 7 Muslim-dominated countries, to wit: Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan,
Somalia, Iraq and Iran! By fiat, a blanket embargo had been placed on all
individuals whose sole criteria was being nationals of the 7-listed countries
irrespective of their personal differences.
Whenever
there is a blanket labelling of any group of people based on their religion,
race, colour, particular physical peculiarities or other subjective criteria,
and such subjective criteria forms the sole basis of apportioning benefits or liabilities,
humanity hurts; as fairness, justice and equity takes the backseat. Experts in
human psychology will readily confirm the commonality of our humanity. Human beings,
of whatsoever race, creed, colour and wheresoever they may be located on earth
are comprised of a similar number of basic building blocks, chromosomes. Saintly
or criminal dispositions can be found in peoples of all races, nationalities
and religions. Just like there are persons of saintly dispositions who happen
to be nationals of European and North American countries or of any creed
whatsoever, there are also persons of same disposition amongst the countries
who are now subjected to very unfair categorizations resulting from the
Executive Order, irrespective of creed.
What really
did Mr. Trump hope to achieve by this clearly not well thought out blanket ban?
Further alienate the nationals of these countries? Increase the recruitment
base for extremist Islamist terror organizations? Make nationals of the listed countries
who might have contributed or are contributing or intending to contribute to US
advancement have a rethink? Ready the minds of other Muslim-dominated countries
and Muslims generally where ever they may reside of whatever nationality
(including Americans) begin to harbour ill-will against the US? The questions
are endless, all in the negative without any likely positive purpose of such
blanket ban.
When it is
realized that nationals of the embargoed countries have not participated in any
terrorist attacks against the US on US soil for the past several decades, as
opposed to some other financially and strategically well-endowed countries Muslim-dominated
countries within the same region whose nationals seem to have a passion for
attacking the US (particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia whose nationals formed
the bulk of the terrorists who participated in 9-11), the use of the guise of
security threats posed by nationals of the listed countries as the excuse to
place the blanket ban exposes a unique personal flaw of Mr. Trump that had
previously only been hinted at – a willingness to move against supposedly
weaker states whilst shying away from confronting stronger adversaries – the countries
whose nationals are banned from travelling to the US, with the exception of
Iran, are relatively weak states.
Immediate dire
consequence of this ban will manifest firstly in Somalia, where efforts to
shore up the internationally recognized Government will be be dealt a near
fatal blow by the blanket categorization of all Somalis. Al-Shabab will be celebrating the travel ban
as most Somali’s will now have no other option than to pitch tents with its ‘the-West-hates-us’
ideology. The people of Sudan who are
now made to join their long-term dictator and fugitive from ICC-trial, Omar
al-Bashir in the list of those banned from travelling to the US may begin to
rethink their hostility to Al-Bashir who is now made to look like ‘one of them’. The only entities who are celebrating the travel ban will surely include ISIS,
AQIM, l Qeida and other extremist Islamist terror groups whose job of
soliciting for more converts has suddenly been made easier.
There is no
doubt that every country has the right to protect its citizens from harm and terrorists
the best way it knows how, but such protections cannot be in a manner that contradicts
basic norms of decency and has all the potential of boomeranging to cause greater harm. It is difficult to see in any way the travel
ban would benefit any interests of the United States or its position as a
leading democratic nation or the so-called ‘leader of the free world’.
On the ban
of travel to the United States for nationals of 7 Muslim majority countries,
Mr. Trump, you got it woefully wrong!
Picture: Placard at
rally protesting the travel ban.
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