Amid the chaos that swept airports across the United States over the weekend, families were kept apart and sick, elderly individuals with documentation were turned away. At the same time, terrorists around the world rejoiced as the United States confirmed what they have long asserted: the United States is at war with Islam.
As Stuart Shapiro, professor and director of the Public Policy Program at the Bloustein School at Rutgers University, recently explained in The Hill:
“An organization that was on the run in Syria and Iraq has just been handed an amazing recruiting tool: A written proclamation from the U.S. president that everything they’ve been saying all these years about the United States being at war with Muslims is true.
“This recruiting tool is likely to be effective in messages consumed by individuals like those who perpetrated the awful attacks in Fort Hood, Orlando and San Bernardino. So while we will be keeping out individuals who mean the United States no harm and indeed are in many cases the victims of those who do, we will have handed our enemies an important weapon.”
Shapiro makes two important points: one, that ISIS can now further assert that the United States hates Muslims, driving a wedge between moderate Muslims and the West, and two, that the most recent gruesome terror attacks that have plagued the United States have been committed by natural-born citizens who became radicalized. The shooters at Fort Hood, Orlando, and San Bernardino (with the exception of Syed Rizwan Farook wife, who came from Pakistan) were all American — not individuals who came in via the visa or refugee program. Farook’s wife entered the U.S. with a visa from Pakistan.
A 2013 report by the Heritage Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, further confirms the futility of the ban. They noted that of 154 attempted terror attacks since September 11th, 77 had been perpetrated by U.S. citizens. Thirty-three came from the U.K. The next highest country of origin was Pakistan, which was not included in Trump’s recent executive order ( Barack Obama did exert a great deal of effort drone bombing that country). Though Afghanistan, which was included in the ban, had four nationals who attempted attacks, that country was followed closely by Haiti, Saudi Arabia, and Albania — none of which were banned. Those countries came in ahead of Yemen, Iran, and Iraq, which were banned (though some supporters of the executive order have asserted the list Trump used was crafted by Obama, the language of the legal authority Trump claims to have appears to allow him to include any country he pleases).
The inconsistencies among the banned countries speak for themselves, and ISIS is already using the order as a recruiting tool. The Washington Postnotes that jihadists were posting on Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform, that “Trump was fulfilling the prediction of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born leader and preacher who famously said that the ‘West would eventually turn against its Muslim citizens.’” Obama killed al-Awlaki without trial (setting a dangerous precedent for President Trump). He also had his sixteen-year-old son, Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki killed, and just this week, a raid ordered by Trump killed Abdul Rahman’s eight-year-old sister.
