By Steven J. Mandel
Most of the mainstream media and many Democratic officials have claimed that the “Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into The United States” is a Muslim ban. This is simply not the case. Nowhere in the executive order are the words “Muslim” or “Islam.” It is a temporary restriction on immigration and travel from seven countries, identified by the Obama administration as areas of concern for terrorism. The countries listed are Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, all of which lack a centralized government. Therefore, individuals arriving from these countries cannot be properly verified.
The majority of the population in these countries are Muslim, however, they are a fraction of the Muslim world. Based on data collected and reported by the Pew Research Center, there are about where the population is mostly Muslim. The three largest are Indonesia, Pakistan and Egypt. The seven countries referenced in the executive order comprise, by population, 16.5 percent of the Muslim world. Therefore, 83.5 percent of the Muslim world is still permitted to immigrate or travel to the U.S.
This is not the first time a U.S. president has implemented restrictions on immigration and travel. ABC News and the Federalist reported that after the discovery of two al Qaeda terrorists living as refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky and after the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence that dozens of Iraqi terrorists infiltrated the U.S. via its refugee program, former President Barack Obama suspended immigration and travel of Iraqi refugees for six months in 2011 According to The American Presidency Project, after the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis where 50 American Embassy personnel in Tehran were imprisoned by Iranian terrorists, former President Jimmy Carter ceased immigration and travel from Iran to the U.S.
The purpose of President Donald Trump’s executive order, as stated in the executive order, is to enact a temporary restriction on immigration and travel for 90 days, so that the visa-issuance process can be reviewed and, if needed, be amended to ensure that any individual with terrorist ties cannot enter and do harm to the U.S. and its citizens.
The following is an excerpt from the executive order:
To grasp a better understanding of the executive order, all citizens of and visitors to the United States should read the executive order in its entirety at whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states.
