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New: Trump issues draconian executive order banning Muslims from seven countries from entering U.S.

Ralph E. Stone
Saturday January 28, 2017 - 10:27:00 AM

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump issued a statement saying, if elected, he would issue “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our representatives can figure out what’s going on.” Now, Trump has followed through on his campaign promise by issuing an executive order suspending visa entry of persons from seven countries that have predominately Muslim populations. The banned countries are Syria, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. 

Titled "Protection Of The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States," the executive order would start to make good on Trump's promise to tighten borders and halt certain refugees from entering the U.S. The order bars all persons from certain terror-prone countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days and suspends the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days until it is reinstated "only for nationals of countries for whom" members of Trump's Cabinet deem can be properly vetted. Does this mean persons from predominately Christian countries? 

The political wing of the National Iranian American Council, which advocates for civil rights and peace, came out forcefully against the order. "This action endangers the lives of Americans and will make us far less safe. It will divert resources away from fighting terrorism in order to crack down on our loved ones. It will feed xenophobia and turn Americans against one another. And it is a gift to groups like ISIS who will use this as a recruitment tool and who must be ecstatic to see America tearing itself apart from within."  

Putting aside the draconian nature of the ban, the question arises as to why these countries were chosen as none of the terrorist attacks occurring on U.S. soil since 9/11 were committed by citizens from any of these countries. If the ban is to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the U.S., shouldn't the list include countries that actually produced such terrorists.  

There were seventeen incidents from 9/11 through the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 with 222 victims killed or injured by 21 perpetrators. The perpetrators were from the U.S. (11), Pakistan (3), Chechnya (2), Somalia (2), Iran (1), Kuwait (1), and Saudi Arabia (1).  

On 9/11, the nineteen terrorists who attacked America that day, fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, and one was from Lebanon. This means that only two of the seven countries on Trump's list produced terrorists who have actually perpetrated attacks on U.S. soil.  

If Trump believes a ban is necessary to keep terrorists out of the U.S., why isn't Saudi Arabia, for example, on the list?