{"id":3388,"date":"2015-12-10T08:37:44","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T14:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2015-12-11T08:54:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T14:54:11","slug":"trumps-muslim-moratorium-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/12\/trumps-muslim-moratorium-part-ii.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Muslim Moratorium, part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve got to be honest with you; I\u2019m pretty disappointed with what I\u2019ve been reading over the course of the day (sorry, no links). \u00a0Yes, various candidates have condemned Trump\u2019s call for a halt to entry by Muslims into the United States, but pundits and conservative commentary sites are saying something rather different: \u00a0\u201csure, I wouldn\u2019t go as far as Trump, but he raises some good points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basic rule of thumb:<\/p>\n

The rules are different for a Presidential candidate. \u00a0You can\u2019t just throw out ideas to chew on, in the way that a Rush Limbaugh might. \u00a0You can\u2019t just make \u201cheat of the moment\u201d statements, or make outlandish suggestions, like a blogger might (I know, I\u2019ve started many\u00a0a post with \u201cjust spitballing here but . . .\u201d). \u00a0Because any such statement \u2014 especially, say, a press release (!) \u2014 is a policy proposal.<\/p>\n

And even if you want to throw out outlandish ideas, stick to things like abolishing the fed, or going back to the gold standard or the like, please. \u00a0Because here\u2019s a Red Line for outlandish ideas: even as a discussion-starter, you don\u2019t get to propose policies that are unjust.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s nothing particularly unjust about vetting prospective immigrants or visitors from countries connected with terrorism, or who have visited such countries. \u00a0It\u2019s also wholly reasonable to restrict immigration from particularly countries. \u00a0And it\u2019s perfectly fine to exclude those individuals from entry who support terrorism, who support violence in the name of Islam, who support sharia-type punishments for apostasy, adultery, blasphemy, who require women to not just wear a headcovering but cover their entire faces, or who have connections and relationships that suggest they may support these things.<\/p>\n

And I know the rationale for a total Muslim ban is that it\u2019s too difficult to differentiate between moderate and extremist Muslims, so the only surefire way to prevent extremist Muslims from entering the country is to ban them all. \u00a0There have also been discussions on sites like National Review Online concluding that Congress has every right to control who is allowed to enter the country, and that there\u2019s no law to prevent them from differentiating by religion.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more at stake than what\u2019s legal or not, what\u2019s constitutional or not.<\/p>\n

Is it just?<\/p>\n

It is unjust to exclude moderate Muslims from travelling to the United States, even for business or professional reasons.<\/p>\n

And it is unjust in the way we respond to Muslims in America, to treat them as tainted, poisoned \u2014 not just the extremists but even the cheerful young pharmacy technician at the grocery store, her hair loosely covered.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019d be easier to say, \u201cno Muslims\u201d, but it would be unjust.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a fool.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve seen the reports that unpleasantly large numbers of Muslims hold extremist beliefs, and that even many of those who claim to seek peace still believe that \u201cof course\u201d peace is only possible if Jews leave Israel. \u00a0I know likewise about the \u201csword verses,\u201d and I\u2019ve read often enough about the fact that Muslim tradition says that later-written verses abrogate earlier-written verses, and that the \u201csword verses\u201d urging violence were written after the verses proclaiming tolerance \u2014 following the history of the community, first seeking converts, then gaining military power. \u00a0I also know that Islam is not just built on one\u2019s personal interpretation of the Quran, but calls on its followers to observe the teachings of the hadiths, and the \u201cchain of transmission,\u201d and that the major Islamic schools in the Middle East, the closest Islam\u2019s got to a pope, all line up in support of some things we in the West find rather objectionable. \u00a0I\u2019ve read Ayaan Hirsi Ali<\/a>, for instance, and similar writings, and I pop over to The Gatestone Institute <\/a>periodically.<\/p>\n

I also agree that those who say, \u201cIslamic State is not Islamic,\u201d are fools. \u00a0Back when Obama was making this pitch in February, his premise really seemed to be a sort of logical deduction: \u00a0\u201cAll religions are about a loving God and being good to others. \u00a0Islam is a religion. \u00a0But Islamic State is evil. \u00a0Therefore, Islamic State is not a religion, and is cannot be Islam.\u201d \u00a0(See my post at the time<\/a>.) \u00a0 But that\u2019s nonsense, for us as outsiders to imagine that we know better what is and isn\u2019t Islam, rather than recognizing that there are different kinds of Islam and we cannot be\u00a0the ones admitting or excluding groups from that definition. \u00a0Certainly, Muslims themselves define who they are by whether you\u2019ve made a profession of faith, just as Christians define ourselves likewise by our professions of faith.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the opinion that got me blocked from commenting at National Review*: \u00a0we are getting so focused on the extremism that we\u2019re seeing that too many are rejecting the very possibility of Muslims who are peaceful.<\/p>\n

(* Yes, indirectly. \u00a0This was back in January; details here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And\u00a0there are others who believe in a different kind of Islam. \u00a0Even just a quick check of the Patheos Muslim channel produced this post<\/a>, about a declaration of a Muslim Reform Movement. \u00a0Though these groups are small, they deserve our support; particularly since the largest number of Muslims allow traditionalist groups such as CAIR and the Muslim Student Association to speak for them\u00a0simply\u00a0because they don\u2019t know of an alternative way to practice their religion, or don\u2019t have an alternative local community.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Muslim moratorium, and those who support it, and those who waffle about it and say things like \u201cgosh, I wouldn\u2019t go that far but. . .\u201d but still treat it as a reasonable part of political discourse? \u00a0The whole thing is a slap in the face to those whom we ought to be supporting.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0I\u2019ve flogged this piece on twitter a bit. \u00a0Disappointed in the reactions: \u00a0again and again, an insistence that there are not, and never could be, any reform-minded Muslims, so we can discard them entirely, rather than allying\u00a0with them.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve got to be honest with you; I\u2019m pretty disappointed with what I\u2019ve been reading over the course of the day (sorry, no links). \u00a0Yes, various candidates have condemned Trump\u2019s call for a halt to entry by Muslims into the United States, but pundits and conservative commentary sites are saying something rather different: \u00a0\u201csure, I […]<\/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-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's Muslim Moratorium, part II<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've got to be honest with you; I'm pretty disappointed with what I've been reading over the course of the day (sorry, no links). \u00a0Yes, various candidates\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/12\/trumps-muslim-moratorium-part-ii.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's Muslim Moratorium, part II\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've got to be honest with you; 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