Reasons to be bothered by the Muslim Ban
Here are some accurate answers to use when someone asks why you're bothered by the Muslim Ban.
1. If they say it's not about Muslims: During his campaign Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US. Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that Trump contacted him about helping create a "Muslim ban" and asked how to do it legally. A committee was formed and they later decided to drop the religious basis, at least officially. Furthermore, Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christian refugees would be given priority in terms of refugee status, which is clear in the actual terms of the executive order, which says that minority religions from a region will be given preference. This is a Muslim ban and that is what it was always intended to be.
2. If they say it will allow us to review our vetting techniques: When has anyone actually provided any evidence that our vetting techniques were shoddy or even questionable? When the debate about Syrian refugees was big news last year I learned that the process for refugees to enter the US was very stringent. I can't say for sure about the other ways of entering the US, but the simple fact that Islamic terrorist attacks are very rare compared to the amount of violence in the Middle East suggests that the vetting process is doing a fairly adequate job. Furthermore, we know the real reason for the ban is to ban Muslims, not to improve vetting, so don't buy the propaganda.
3. If they say it's only temporary: It may be only temporary. We don't know. Meanwhile, people are dying. Anne Frank's father tried for months to get a visa to the US but was denied. Would she still be alive if a visa was granted? Whose diary will we read next?
4. If they say it's about safety: No refugee from these countries has ever committed an act of terrorism in America, and none of the four countries of origin of the 9/11 terrorists are on the ban list. Honestly, the entire threat of Islamic terrorism is vastly overblown. There are currently 15,000 or more Muslim doctors in the United States, including several in my very rural part of the world. In the United States, you are probably more likely to be shot by a non-Muslim American and have your life saved by a Muslim doctor than to be harmed by a Muslim terrorist.
5. If they say why do you care about refugees but you don't care about veterans, cancer victims, etc.?: Tell them you would be bothered by laws that would leave veterans or cancer victims in war-torn areas, but no such laws exist, unless you count the Iraqi veterans who assisted our American soldiers in their country who cannot escape the chaos there or the cancer victims who cannot get medical treatment in their home country because the war we started led to their hospitals being bombed by ISIS. Tell them you are trying to fight those laws.
6. If they say you're being hysterical: Say maybe I am. Say maybe I'm losing my mind because I see the country I love stomping on its own heart. Say maybe I'm hysterically angry that people will defend a despicable fascist rather than admit they voted for a tyrant. Tell them you're hysterically upset because you care about the world beyond imaginary borders and you're hysterically scared of what the world is going to look like in four years after Trump and Putin are done, whether they're working together or not.
But you're not hysterical. You just see that Islamic terrorism isn't the biggest threat the world is currently facing.
