Travel ban un-American

The office of president of the United States comes with serious responsibility and enormous powers.

During President Donald Trump’s first week, he issued various orders, most notably the “travel ban” preventing citizens of seven Muslim majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days and suspending the admission of all refugees for 120 days.

As an American, I understand the importance of secure borders. However, as a proud American Muslim, I have issue with the blanket ban on visitors from some predominantly Muslim countries.

A strict vetting process is logical but needs to be exercised on all visitors from all nations because terrorism has no particular address.

American Muslims are very much part of the fabric of society. They are patriotic contributing members of society who work hard, defend this country in our armed forces and, yes, pay taxes. This ban plays into the hands of terrorists and will accomplish just what these despicable ISIS recruiters want — “a western war on Islam.”

This ban is dangerous and un-American. Many of these visitors Trump intends to ban are students attending U.S. universities, physicians who care for our sick, patients seeking life-saving treatments and businessmen and women conducting commerce.

I pray for our country as we go through these divided and turbulent times, and I hope the president surrounds himself with knowledgeable advisers who won’t feed him “alternative facts.”

I don’t question the president’s patriotism. However, one has to question the sanity of his decisions.

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 4:45 AM with the headline "Travel ban un-American."