ay in Assalamualaikum Mr. Trump,
I am Shuhaib Haji Nawawi, a brown Muslim alien residing in the United States with just an F-1 and a B-2 VISA. Don’t worry, there is no explosive attached to this letter and there is nothing offensive about the word that I used to address you. If you are still in doubt, “Assalamualaikum” literally means, “peace be upon you” in Arabic. Yes, I really hope this letter finds you in peace and good health so that you can spend some time processing what I am about to write. To give you some background of myself, I am a 19-year old international student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Again don’t be scared; I am not learning how to make bombs. I was born and raised in a conservative Muslim community. Since young, I was taught of the golden rule that my religion demands respect and care for the others. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that, “None of you has faith until you love for your brother or neighbor what you love for yourself.” (Nawawi). So with much respect and care towards you as the presidential candidate, the Americans, as well as the Muslim communities around the world, I am writing this to you with the hope that you could stop escalating your Islamophobic rhetoric throughout your presidential election. I am not using this letter to humiliate you and your controversial idea but instead, I just think that it is important to give you some perspectives of what it really means to be a Muslim.
On December 7th 2015, you shocked the whole world by demanding a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until the country’s representatives can figure out what is going on. Moreover, as part of your response to the terror attacks in Paris, you were also considering to shut down the mosques and to implement a database for the Muslims in the US (Trump). First of all, I really appreciate your concern towards the national security. However, do you even realize that your plans are unconstitutional? A Harvard Law Professor, Laurence Tribe, claims that your unprecedented proposal would violate both the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses and the equality dimension of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment (NBC News). The First Amendment clearly states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (Usconstitution.net). The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, made it clear that a church and a state should be kept separate in protecting religious freedom. Sadly now, instead of abiding by the Constitution, you are condemning a religion to gain your political power. What a shame! You might argue that barring Muslims who are not U.S. citizens may not violate the U.S. law because the Constitution’s protection do not apply to the people outside the border but I think that is totally irrelevant. Your plan would also go against many principles of the international law and the agreements the U.S. has signed with other nations because it embraces open discrimination against a religion.
With the implementation of the ban, though it may be temporary, the finance, economics and tourism sectors of the country would be greatly affected. According to the statistics by the National Travel and Tourism Office 2014 Market Profile of the Middle East, in 2013 over a million Middle Eastern tourists visited the United States and spent an average of $6 000 each ($2 000 more than the average European traveler), with total spending by the Middle Eastern tourist amounting to $6.8 billion. But when it is taken into account there are a lot of other predominantly Muslim countries outside the Middle East like Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey, that figure scaled up to $18.4 billion. Furthermore, in 2015, four out of the top ten sovereign wealth funds in the world could be traced to the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), which reportedly manages an estimated 2 trillion pounds (approximately 2.83 trillion U.S. dollars) in assets (Travel.trade.gov). So Mr. Trump, isn’t that a huge economic lost to the country if our investments in these predominantly Muslims countries are affected due to your anti-Muslim immigration plan? In your latest personal financial disclosure, you listed various interests in doing business in predominantly Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Indonesia. Now tell me, how is it fair for you to be able to visit these countries while the non-American Muslim dealers are not able to enter the United States for business purposes?
On the other hand, your words and actions could jeopardize the relations between the United States and the other nations. Not long time ago, Suzanne Kelly, a freelance journalist from Scotland, started a petition to ban you, YES YOU, from the U.K. entry for hatred speech. That petition quickly gained enough signatures to be put forward as a topic of debate in the Britain’s parliament. If a very influential country like the U.K. bans you from entering the country for discriminating Muslims, women, homosexuals, and the physically impaired, you will surely face difficulties in taking major actions that requires support from another country. For example, before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. was desperately looking for an ally who would support the war. The Canadians, French, and the Germans bowed out. Britain was the only one allying with the U.S. in the war and that was enough support to start a war. If Tony Blair had chosen not to support the U.S., that war might well not have happened. History has proved that the United States and the United Kingdom need each other in resolving numerous political, economic, and military conflicts – including the Global War on Terrorism – throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. So, I really beg you to be extra sensitive and cautious in every word that you say and every action that you do so that the relationship between the U.S. and the other countries would not be marred. If you keep being a demagogue, I am afraid that the U.S. would lose international support thus making America a weaker country.
Dear Donald Trump, everything that comes out of your bigoted mouth seems to have damaging effects on many people, especially children. After hearing your call to deport and ban Muslims from entering the country, 8-year old Sofia Yassini from Texas was convinced and terrified that you wanted to kick her and her family, who are Muslims – and American citizens – out of the country. From that moment, she kept checking the locks on the door several times, fearing the Army would take her and her family out. While expecting for the worst, she raced to her room and packed her Barbie dolls, a tub of peanut butter and a toothbrush into a bag. She also insisted on bringing boots to prepare for the long boar ride she imagined was coming. When her mother, Melissa, arrived home from work, Sofia quickly ran into her arms and cried because she was scared. Melissa had to stay up late most nights to comfort Sofia that she would not be deported out of the country. Unfortunately, Sofia was not the only one who was terrified. A 12-year-old boy from rural Maryland, Ahad Khan, came home from school in tears because his best friend called him a future terrorist who couldn’t be trusted. Some other children across the country also have questioned their faith and place in the American society. This has to stop. You claimed that your anti-Muslims immigration policy would reduce terrorism in the country. Guess what Mr. Trump? What you are doing to these children right now is a terror! No child in the world should ever feel this way. You have to realize that in the minds of the children – many long on imagination and short on political understanding – phrases implying detainment or exclusion like “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” can create anxiety and trauma. As a presidential candidate, you should be affirming the Americans that they deserve equal freedom regardless of their religions, not by making them feel scared and unsafe to be in this country.
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