
President Joe Biden signs one of a slate of executive orders during his first few hours in the White House on January 20, 2021. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
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President Joe Biden signs one of a slate of executive orders during his first few hours in the White House on January 20, 2021. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Muslim, African, and Arab Americans, and people around the world Wednesday celebrated President Joe Biden's rescinding of the racist Trump-era travel ban that mostly targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries.
"The Muslim and African ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for."
--NO BAN Act Coalition
The lifting of the so-called Muslim ban was one of numerous executive actions taken by Biden shortly after his inauguration and fufills a campaign promise he made to end the prohibition on "day one" of his administration.
During the course of Trump's presidency, more than 41,000 visa requests were denied (pdf) under the ban, which ripped families apart, prevented people from the proscribed countries from getting healthcare and education in the U.S., and deprived the United States of doctors, nurses, and other medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
\u201cTHE MUSLIM BAN IS OVER! Millions of families will be reunited. This is an unprecedented victory for Muslims and allies. #ByeBan\u201d— Muslim Advocates (@Muslim Advocates) 1611181536
There was a great sense of joy and relief at the ban's demise. The NO BAN Act Coalition, a broad alliance of 81 national and local civil rights, faith, and community groups fighting for anti-discrimination legislation that is now included in Biden's U.S. Citizenship Act, issued a statement bidding "goodbye to the Muslim and African ban."
The statement continued:
Almost four years ago, one of President [Donald] Trump's first acts in office was to ban Muslims from the United States. Three years later, he expanded the ban to include several African countries. Today, it's fitting that one of Biden's first acts is to rescind the Muslim and African Ban. This is a momentous occasion for the millions of Americans who were separated by the ban and those who stood up against this injustice at airports nationwide.
Thank you, President Biden for staying true to your promise to repeal this bigoted policy immediately. The Muslim and African Ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for. However, just ending the ban through an executive order won't stop this from happening again. That's why we applaud the historic inclusion of the NO BAN Act in the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, told Religion News Service that Biden's order would "correct the course" of the lives disrupted by Trump.
"Tens of thousands of impacted individuals will now have the chance to be with their families during cherished and challenging times," said Billoo. "While we know our work is far from over, today we celebrate the heroic efforts undertaken by so many over the last several years in our effort to repeal the Muslim and African bans."
\u201cBREAKING: President Biden just rescinded the cruel Muslim ban that targeted Africans.\n\nPeople will now be allowed to reunite with their families, celebrate life events, receive life-saving health care treatment, and pursue educational and career opportunities.\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1611183983
\u201cElections have consequences. \n\nBiden within hours of taking the oath of office was able to: revoke Muslim ban, rejoin Paris Climate Agreement, \nextend federal eviction moratorium,\nrescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens, preserve/fortify DACA and much more.\n\nIt\u2019s a new day.\u201d— Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan Omar) 1611184070
Some of the most poignant reaction to the end of the ban came from people directly affected by it. Ramez Alghazzouli, a Syrian immigrant who had been separated from his wife for a year due to the policy, told Religion News Service it felt like a boulder had been removed from his chest. But he also said the travel prohibition irreparably damaged his family.
"The ban itself will be reversed but no one can reverse our feelings and emotions and the time we lost while being separated from each other," said Alghazzouli. "It'll still be part of our life and history. The Muslim ban is the nuke that we survived but we are still suffering from its collateral damage."
There was no shortage of suggestions on what Biden could do help heal the harm caused by travel ban, from ending Trump-era "extreme vetting" of Muslims and others entering the U.S., to increasing the number of refugees allowed into the country, to ending U.S. wars that have killed at least hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women, and children since 2001.
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Muslim, African, and Arab Americans, and people around the world Wednesday celebrated President Joe Biden's rescinding of the racist Trump-era travel ban that mostly targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries.
"The Muslim and African ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for."
--NO BAN Act Coalition
The lifting of the so-called Muslim ban was one of numerous executive actions taken by Biden shortly after his inauguration and fufills a campaign promise he made to end the prohibition on "day one" of his administration.
During the course of Trump's presidency, more than 41,000 visa requests were denied (pdf) under the ban, which ripped families apart, prevented people from the proscribed countries from getting healthcare and education in the U.S., and deprived the United States of doctors, nurses, and other medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
\u201cTHE MUSLIM BAN IS OVER! Millions of families will be reunited. This is an unprecedented victory for Muslims and allies. #ByeBan\u201d— Muslim Advocates (@Muslim Advocates) 1611181536
There was a great sense of joy and relief at the ban's demise. The NO BAN Act Coalition, a broad alliance of 81 national and local civil rights, faith, and community groups fighting for anti-discrimination legislation that is now included in Biden's U.S. Citizenship Act, issued a statement bidding "goodbye to the Muslim and African ban."
The statement continued:
Almost four years ago, one of President [Donald] Trump's first acts in office was to ban Muslims from the United States. Three years later, he expanded the ban to include several African countries. Today, it's fitting that one of Biden's first acts is to rescind the Muslim and African Ban. This is a momentous occasion for the millions of Americans who were separated by the ban and those who stood up against this injustice at airports nationwide.
Thank you, President Biden for staying true to your promise to repeal this bigoted policy immediately. The Muslim and African Ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for. However, just ending the ban through an executive order won't stop this from happening again. That's why we applaud the historic inclusion of the NO BAN Act in the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, told Religion News Service that Biden's order would "correct the course" of the lives disrupted by Trump.
"Tens of thousands of impacted individuals will now have the chance to be with their families during cherished and challenging times," said Billoo. "While we know our work is far from over, today we celebrate the heroic efforts undertaken by so many over the last several years in our effort to repeal the Muslim and African bans."
\u201cBREAKING: President Biden just rescinded the cruel Muslim ban that targeted Africans.\n\nPeople will now be allowed to reunite with their families, celebrate life events, receive life-saving health care treatment, and pursue educational and career opportunities.\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1611183983
\u201cElections have consequences. \n\nBiden within hours of taking the oath of office was able to: revoke Muslim ban, rejoin Paris Climate Agreement, \nextend federal eviction moratorium,\nrescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens, preserve/fortify DACA and much more.\n\nIt\u2019s a new day.\u201d— Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan Omar) 1611184070
Some of the most poignant reaction to the end of the ban came from people directly affected by it. Ramez Alghazzouli, a Syrian immigrant who had been separated from his wife for a year due to the policy, told Religion News Service it felt like a boulder had been removed from his chest. But he also said the travel prohibition irreparably damaged his family.
"The ban itself will be reversed but no one can reverse our feelings and emotions and the time we lost while being separated from each other," said Alghazzouli. "It'll still be part of our life and history. The Muslim ban is the nuke that we survived but we are still suffering from its collateral damage."
There was no shortage of suggestions on what Biden could do help heal the harm caused by travel ban, from ending Trump-era "extreme vetting" of Muslims and others entering the U.S., to increasing the number of refugees allowed into the country, to ending U.S. wars that have killed at least hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women, and children since 2001.
Muslim, African, and Arab Americans, and people around the world Wednesday celebrated President Joe Biden's rescinding of the racist Trump-era travel ban that mostly targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries.
"The Muslim and African ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for."
--NO BAN Act Coalition
The lifting of the so-called Muslim ban was one of numerous executive actions taken by Biden shortly after his inauguration and fufills a campaign promise he made to end the prohibition on "day one" of his administration.
During the course of Trump's presidency, more than 41,000 visa requests were denied (pdf) under the ban, which ripped families apart, prevented people from the proscribed countries from getting healthcare and education in the U.S., and deprived the United States of doctors, nurses, and other medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
\u201cTHE MUSLIM BAN IS OVER! Millions of families will be reunited. This is an unprecedented victory for Muslims and allies. #ByeBan\u201d— Muslim Advocates (@Muslim Advocates) 1611181536
There was a great sense of joy and relief at the ban's demise. The NO BAN Act Coalition, a broad alliance of 81 national and local civil rights, faith, and community groups fighting for anti-discrimination legislation that is now included in Biden's U.S. Citizenship Act, issued a statement bidding "goodbye to the Muslim and African ban."
The statement continued:
Almost four years ago, one of President [Donald] Trump's first acts in office was to ban Muslims from the United States. Three years later, he expanded the ban to include several African countries. Today, it's fitting that one of Biden's first acts is to rescind the Muslim and African Ban. This is a momentous occasion for the millions of Americans who were separated by the ban and those who stood up against this injustice at airports nationwide.
Thank you, President Biden for staying true to your promise to repeal this bigoted policy immediately. The Muslim and African Ban was never about national security, it was always rooted in bigotry and called into question what values America stands for. However, just ending the ban through an executive order won't stop this from happening again. That's why we applaud the historic inclusion of the NO BAN Act in the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, told Religion News Service that Biden's order would "correct the course" of the lives disrupted by Trump.
"Tens of thousands of impacted individuals will now have the chance to be with their families during cherished and challenging times," said Billoo. "While we know our work is far from over, today we celebrate the heroic efforts undertaken by so many over the last several years in our effort to repeal the Muslim and African bans."
\u201cBREAKING: President Biden just rescinded the cruel Muslim ban that targeted Africans.\n\nPeople will now be allowed to reunite with their families, celebrate life events, receive life-saving health care treatment, and pursue educational and career opportunities.\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1611183983
\u201cElections have consequences. \n\nBiden within hours of taking the oath of office was able to: revoke Muslim ban, rejoin Paris Climate Agreement, \nextend federal eviction moratorium,\nrescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens, preserve/fortify DACA and much more.\n\nIt\u2019s a new day.\u201d— Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan Omar) 1611184070
Some of the most poignant reaction to the end of the ban came from people directly affected by it. Ramez Alghazzouli, a Syrian immigrant who had been separated from his wife for a year due to the policy, told Religion News Service it felt like a boulder had been removed from his chest. But he also said the travel prohibition irreparably damaged his family.
"The ban itself will be reversed but no one can reverse our feelings and emotions and the time we lost while being separated from each other," said Alghazzouli. "It'll still be part of our life and history. The Muslim ban is the nuke that we survived but we are still suffering from its collateral damage."
There was no shortage of suggestions on what Biden could do help heal the harm caused by travel ban, from ending Trump-era "extreme vetting" of Muslims and others entering the U.S., to increasing the number of refugees allowed into the country, to ending U.S. wars that have killed at least hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women, and children since 2001.
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza," the US ambassador to the UN repeated a debunked claim that the world's leading authority on starvation lowered its standards to declare a famine.
Every member nation of the United Nations Security Council except the United States on Wednesday affirmed that Israel's engineered famine in Gaza is "man-made" as 10 more Palestinians died of starvation amid what UN experts warned is a worsening crisis.
Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members issued a joint statement calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and lifting of all Israeli restrictions on aid delivery into the embattled strip, where hundreds of Palestinians have died from starvation and hundreds of thousands more are starving.
"Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately," they said. "Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course."
"We express our profound alarm and distress at the IPC data on Gaza, published last Friday. It clearly and unequivocally confirms famine," the statement said, referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's declaration of Phase 5, or a famine "catastrophe," in the strip.
"We trust the IPC's work and methodology," the 14 countries declared. "This is the first time famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region. Every day, more persons are dying as a result of malnutrition, many of them children."
"This is a man-made crisis," the statement stresses. "The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law."
Israel, which is facing a genocide case at the UN's International Court of Justice, denies the existence of famine in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.
The 14 countries issuing the joint statement are: Algeria, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, and the United Kingdom.
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met," US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea rejected the resolution and the IPC's findings.
"We can only solve problems with credibility and integrity," Shea told the Security Council. "Unfortunately, the recent report from the IPC doesn't pass the test on either."
Shea also repeated the debunked claim that the IPC's "normal standards were changed for [the IPC famine] declaration."
The Security Council's affirmation that the Gaza famine is man-made mirrors the findings of food experts who have accused Israel of orchestrating a carefully planned campaign of mass starvation in the strip.
The UN Palestinian Rights Bureau and UN humanitarian officials also warned Wednesday that the famine in Gaza is "only getting worse."
"Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution, and death," the humanitarian experts said. "By the end of September, that number could exceed 640,000."
"Failure to act now will have irreversible consequences," they added.
Wednesday's UN actions came as Israel intensified Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, the campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from Gaza, possibly into a reportedly proposed concentration camp that would be built over the ruins of the southern city of Rafah.
The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) on Wednesday reported 10 more Palestinian deaths "due to famine and malnutrition" over the past 24 hours, including two children, bringing the number of famine victims to at least 313, 119 of them children.
All told, Israel's 691-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to the GHM.
"What would the reaction would be if an Arab state wrote this about synagogues and Jews?" asked one critic.
Israel faced backlash this week after its Arabic-language account on the social media site X published a message warning Europeans to take action against the proliferation of mosques and "remove" Muslims from their countries.
"In the year 1980, there were only fewer than a hundred mosques in Europe. As for today, there are more than 20,000 mosques. This is the true face of colonization," posted Israel, a settler-colonial state whose nearly 2 million Muslim citizens face widespread discrimination, and where Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories live under an apartheid regime.
"This is what is happening while Europe is oblivious and does not care about the danger," the post continues. "And the danger does not lie in the existence of mosques in and of themselves, for freedom of worship is one of the basic human rights, and every person has the right to believe and worship his Lord."
"The problem lies in the contents that are taught in some of these mosques, and they are not limited to piety and good deeds, but rather focus on encouraging escalating violence in the streets of Europe, and spreading hatred for the other and even for those who host them in their countries, and inciting against them instead of teaching love, harmony, and peace," Israel added. "Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column."
Referring to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Berlin-based journalist James Jackson replied on X that "even the AfD don't tweet, 'Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column' over a map of mosques."
Other social media users called Israel's post "racist" and "Islamophobic," while some highlighted the stark contrast between the way Palestinians and Israelis treat Christian people and institutions.
Others noted that some of the map's fearmongering figures misleadingly showing a large number of mosques indicate countries whose populations are predominantly or significantly Muslim.
"Russia has 8,000 mosques? Who would've known a country with millions of Muslim Central Asians and Caucasians would need so many!" said one X user.
Israel's post came amid growing international outrage over its 691-day assault and siege on Gaza, which has left more than 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving and facing ethnic cleansing as Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—a campaign to conquer, occupy, and "cleanse" the strip—ramps up amid a growing engineered famine that has already killed hundreds of people.
Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives form the International Criminal Court, where they are wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and forced starvation.
European nations including Belgium, Ireland, and Spain are supporting the South Africa-led ICJ genocide case against Israel. Since October 2023, European countries including Belgium, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either formally recognized Palestinian statehood or announced their intention to do so.
"This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
The Trump administration is reportedly putting new restrictions on nonprofit organizations that would bar them from helping undocumented immigrants affected by natural disasters.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is "now barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants" while also requiring these groups "to cooperate with immigration officials and enforcement operations."
Documents obtained by the paper reveal that all volunteer groups that receive government money to help in the wake of disasters must not "operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration." What's more, the groups are prohibited from "harboring, concealing, or shielding from detection illegal aliens" and must "provide access to detainees, such as when an immigration officer seeks to interview a person who might be a removable alien."
The order pertains to faith-based aid groups such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross that are normally on the front lines building shelters and providing assistance during disasters.
Scott Robinson, an emergency management expert who teaches at Arizona State University, told The Washington Post that there is no historical precedent for requiring disaster victims to prove proof of their legal status before receiving assistance.
"The notion that the federal government would use these operations for surveillance is entirely new territory," he said.
Many critics were quick to attack the administration for threatening to punish nonprofit groups that help undocumented immigrants during natural disasters.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) lashed out at the decision to bar certain people from receiving assistance during humanitarian emergencies.
"When disaster hits, we cannot only help those with certain legal status," she wrote in a social media post. "We have an obligation to help every single person in need. This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that restrictions on faith-based groups such as the Salvation Army amounted to a violation of their First Amendment rights.
"Arguably the most anti-religious administration in history," he wrote. "Just nakedly hostile to those who wish to practice their faith."
Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith labeled the new DHS policy "truly cruel and crazy—even for this administration."
Author Charles Fishman also labeled the new policy "crazy" and said it looks like the Trump administration is "trying to crush even charity."
Catherine Rampell, a former columnist at The Washington Post, simply described the new DHS policy as "evil."