It\u2019s a frickin\u2019 mess.<\/p>\n
When I first read that Trump had called for prohibitions on Muslims entering the country, I thought this was another one of his off-the-cuff statements, and misquoted at that. \u00a0But it\u2019s there in his press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country\u2019s representatives can figure out what is going on. According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing \u201c25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad\u201d and 51% of those polled, \u201cagreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.\u201d Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won\u2019t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump stated, \u201cWithout looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now,\u00a0to begin with, Pew Research does periodically publish polls telling us that a great portion of the worldwide Muslim population is extremist, as we\u2019d characterize them. \u00a0I can\u2019t lay my hands on it at the moment, but there was a study a couple years ago in which disturbingly large percentages of the population in various countries thought that apostates deserved the death penalty, for instance. \u00a0In the U.S., we\u2019re not exempt from such views; Pew\u2019s latest study<\/a> reports that 8% of American Muslims believe that suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified; 5% have a favorable view of Al Qaeda, and a full 21% believe there is a fair amount or a great deal of support for extremism, when phrased impersonally.<\/p>\n And as much as the media seems to have a stylebook that demands, when discussing an individual deciding to hold extremist views, to speak in the passive voice \u2014 \u201che was unaccountably radicalized\u201d \u2014 the reality is that there are individuals who make the intentional and willful choice to believe that they should kill nonbelievers in the name of Islam, right here in the United States. \u00a0You think Farook and Malik were the only two? \u00a0Really? \u00a0Mom was surely involved, and sis as well, to begin with. \u00a0And how many others are out there right now, having not attacked simply because they haven\u2019t yet decided that the time is right, either directed by ISIS or working wholly independently? \u00a0And how many others still believe that Islamic women should be shamed or punished if they refuse to cover, or bring dishonor to their family, believe that the Charlie Hebdo victims had it coming to them for daring to insult Islam, and believe that Islam deserves special protection against blasphemy? \u00a0Or support the Muslim Brotherhood, and maybe wouldn\u2019t advocate for sharia law in the United States and might think ISIS is a bit too brutal, but don\u2019t have any fundamental gripe with the idea of a sharia legal system, and promote such things as the separation of the sexes here.<\/p>\n The concern is legitimate.<\/p>\n I get it. \u00a0We\u2019re all worried. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t vet Malik. \u00a0We don\u2019t know whether the government tried particularly hard. \u00a0We worry that, even now, the government is more worried about offending Muslims than solving this, that they\u2019re willfully denying a risk, and treating each of these incidents as one-offs. \u00a0We know that the federal government has to improve its processes, probing connections to extremist groups and even asking simple questions that are markers of extremist belief. \u00a0Heck, they could simply start with having an immigration officer of the opposite sex try to shake hands. \u00a0With respect to Muslims in the United States, the government has to be more cautious about granting the label \u201cmoderate\u201d to everyone who claims it, and be instead more demanding that \u201cmoderates\u201d are actually moderate, with an eye toward, for instance, Ayaan Hirsi Ali\u2019s characterization of the problems with Islam as a totalitarian sort of worldview (see my summary of her book here<\/a> and my reflections on her message here<\/a>).<\/p>\n And there are pundits who even now are saying, \u201cwell, we wouldn\u2019t wholly prevent Muslims from entering the country, but Trump is right insofar as we need to do something<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0And there are pundits who say, \u201cthis is just Trump\u2019s opening bid, like a negotiation in which you ask for far more than you think you can get, in order to have a strong negotiating position to ultimately get what you really want.\u201d<\/p>\n But Trump isn\u2019t just a Rush Limbaugh-type radio show host, or a pundit on a blog somewhere. \u00a0He\u2019s claiming to be, and is expecting to be treated as, a serious candidate for the Presidency. \u00a0And no one in this position should even contemplate proposing something like this. \u00a0It\u2019s not OK, and can\u2019t be justified and explained away as a tactic, or brushed off as \u201che didn\u2019t really mean it,\u201d or \u201che really only meant a pause of a couple weeks\u201d (really? \u00a0since when can Congress \u201cfigure out\u201d something in just a couple weeks?) or \u201che really only referred to immigration\u201d of one kind or another, or countries with an Al Qaeda presence.<\/p>\n So, no. \u00a0Just no.<\/p>\n We can have a conversation. \u00a0We should<\/em> have a conversation.<\/p>\n But \u201cban Muslims from entering the country\u201d is not, cannot be the starting point for this conversation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a frickin\u2019 mess. When I first read that Trump had called for prohibitions on Muslims entering the country, I thought this was another one of his off-the-cuff statements, and misquoted at that. \u00a0But it\u2019s there in his press release: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n