Trump's Muslim Immigration & Travel Ban Is More Likely to Exclude Dissidents Than Terrorists

According to a document obtained by Bloomberg News, the seven Muslim majority countries from which will be excluded from travel and immigration to the United States are as follows: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.


As Bloomberg has further noted it excludes Muslim majority countries such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates where Trump has business interests. Quel surprise. Last I checked, there is every bit as much terrorism in Turkey as there is in Iraq or Libya. Of course, Trump admires Erdogan for putting down last summer's aborted coup.


Although it's possible the list could expand it is worth noting it does not include Saudi Arabia from where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers called home nor does it include Pakistan where Osama bin Laden met his maker.


I don't object to the countries in question getting far higher vetting than they presently do, but an outright ban is hopelessly impractical. Let's assume a terrorist in Yemen wants to do this country harm and sees fit to plot a terrorist attack against this country. What is to prevent him from reaching the United States from Europe or recruiting others to do the same? And as our soldiers in Fort Hood and office workers in San Bernardino found out Muslim terrorists can be just as easily born and bred in the United States.


When it is all said and done, the ban is far more likely to exclude dissidents than it is terrorists. There are many Iranians living in exile in the United States and throughout the West who have absolutely no sympathy for the Mullahs. While the regime may chant "Death to America", Iran might very well be the least anti-American country in the Muslim world.


And what of the future Ayaan Hirsi Alis of the world? Not surprisingly, Hirsi Ali did not care for Trump's proposal when he unleashed it on the world in December 2015. Yes, it is true that Hirsi Ali is an atheist. But when she arrived The Netherlands a quarter century ago, she was a devout Sunni Muslim who believed that Salman Rushdie deserved to die and once participated in a rally in Kenya to burn The Satanic Verses, a book she hadn't read. Hirsi Ali and Rushdie are now close friends. She has come a very, very long way.

Trump's proposed ban virtually guarantees that we will not see the likes of another Hirsi Ali and the West will be poorer for it.