Banning Muslims
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
By calling for banning Muslims from America, Donald Trump may have done a favor. The open legitimizing of bigotry has sounded a timely bugle for a wake-up call.
Whether in the East or the West, the common denominator as to who bears the brunt of hate is the weakness of the intended target.
Trump’s call is an acid test of Muslims’ mettle – a test now unavoidable.
It clarifies and crystallizes the stunning lack of leverage of worldwide Muslims – 25 percent of the world’s population. It also exposes how much of Muslim energies have been squandered into corrupt futility and its self-respect demeaned by cruising on borrowed brains, borrowed friends, and borrowed guns. Exposed, too, is the affluent Arab Establishment, whose divisive Fitna role has left, in its wake, Muslims unsafe, disunited, and clawing at each other.
Unfettered social media in the West is now radioactive with anti-Muslim venom. Violative of Islamic values – and equally reprehensible – is mistreatment of minorities in Muslim-majority lands.
1400 years ago, Hazrat Ali had warned about the triple perils of timidity, avarice, and being miserly. These traits have enfeebled unity of commitment.
Lest self-pitying victimology overtake good sense, it may be pertinent to gently remind that there are 57 member states in the OIC. What prevents emerging from hibernation to convene an emergency session to thrash out an international action plan to thwart threats to its dignity and security?
The results of docility and being frozen with fear are self-evident. What prevents the US Muslim community transitioning from the margins and living its rightful role as an integral part of first-class American citizenry? The emphasis here is on living, not on existing. Sitting quietly means that consent has been given for perpetual vilification and bullying.
What Trump and his allies are suggesting is unconstitutional under US law. Establishing a religious test for anyone wanting to enter the United States likely violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion, the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process, and the 14 th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under law. It also runs counter to the spirit of the Constitution, Article VI of which prohibits requiring a religious test to qualify for public office.
It is also illegal under international law, when the world has just celebrated the 67 th anniversary, on December 10, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin Roosevelt, chaired the commission that drafted the document. Article 1 declares that all human beings are equal in dignity and rights, and Article 7 prohibits discrimination under equal protection of the law. In addition, under Article 26 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all persons are entitled to equal and effective protection from discrimination based on religion.
No one segment of society should have that much power. And no segment of society should be that weak. If Muslims feel that their grievances and aspirations are unacknowledged, trivialized, and misrepresented, then the onus is on them to set it right.
They can cry about it or do something about it. High shall be the price of inaction.
