Win Without War and Global Progressive Hub joint statement in response to the White House’s executive order banning citizens from majority Muslim nations

Last Updated on January 27, 2017.

 
President Trump signed on Friday an executive order that effectively bans citizens from a handful of majority Muslim countries indefinitely, halts the program that brings refugees to our country for a period of time, blocks Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., and seeks to establish safe zones in and around Syria for displaced persons.
“He’s not even a week on the job, and President Trump has already taken a hacksaw to the U.S. Constitution and the values Americans cherish,” said Stephen Miles, Director of Win Without War. “Making rules that apply differently based on which God you pray to and slamming America’s doors to those seeking freedom is as un-American as you get.”
“The United States is at its best when it leads around the world based on values of inclusion, human rights and dignity,” said Global Progressive Hub Co-Director Michelle Dixon. “President Trump’s executive order curtailing refugee admissions and blocking citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries reverses that course, and instead puts us on an unnecessary path to further discord, conflict, and human suffering here and around the world. ”
Click here for more background on the national security implications of President Trump’s executive order.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 27, 2017
WASHINGTON, DC – Win Without War and Global Progressive Hub released the following joint statement in response to the White House’s executive order banning citizens from majority Muslim nations:
Banning Muslims and slamming our doors to those in need undermines the safety, character, and conscience of America.
The freedom to practice any religion is one of the key tenets of our Constitution, and provides a basis for U.S. foreign policy and promoting our values both at home and abroad. What’s more, the words enshrined on the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” — is not, and should not be, limited to any one religion, ethnic group, or national identity.
However, an executive order signed by President Trump on Thursday undermines these core American values. The order effectively blocks Muslims from certain countries from entering our country, temporarily halts and ultimately scales back all refugee admissions, and prevents displaced Syrians fleeing more than five years of untold carnage from seeking refuge in the United States.
These are not American values. We are better than this. Rather than build walls between communities, we should seek to stand together as one to combat hate, extremist ideologies, and terrorism.
The a draft of President’s Trump’s executive order also directs planning for establishing a “safe zone” in and around Syria. While the details remain unclear, past military officials have said such policy may require a sizable military intervention, risk plunging the United States deeper into Syria’s civil war, and could exacerbate rather than alleviate the horrific humanitarian crisis there.
Building on his disregard for truth, President Trump’s order claims to promote U.S. national security, but the reality is that it undermines it. Not only does banning Muslims open the door to further discrimination against Muslims in our own country — Muslim-Americans who are our doctors, teachers, first responders, and often the first ones to report and combat potential terrorist activity — but it also provides an unnecessary recruitment tool for terrorists who seek conflict with the United States and its allies justified on religious grounds.
Additionally, this order seeks to address a problem that does not exist, given the vigorous refugee screening process already in place. U.S counterterror policies are more effective when they are evidenced-based and rooted in American values, versus relying on discriminatory broad brush profiles of race, religion, and nationality.
Even worse, these actions are an effort to unilaterally legislate policies built on hatred and falsehoods that Congress would never enact. This is not what democracy looks like.
America’s security has only ever been weakened by dividing our country and turning our back on those in need. We strongly urge Members of Congress to immediately denounce these Executive Orders and to take whatever means necessary to prevent their implementation.”

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For further comment or questions, please contact Stephen Miles, Win Without War’s Director, at Stephen@winwithoutwar.org or 504-289-3594, or Ben Armbruster, Communications Director of the Global Progressive Hub, at barmbruster@globalprogressivehub.org or 202-247-7133.

January 27, 2017