Trump's America Shutting Out Muslim Refugees

 Only 20,918 refugees have so far been admitted to the US in fiscal year 2018, despite the cap being set at 45,000. Of those admitted, Muslim refugees have been hit the hardest with their share dropping to 14.5%, the lowest since 2001. At the same time, the Christian refugees share rose to nearly 71%, the highest since 2001, according to data compiled by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). This data provides incontrovertible evidence of U.S. President Donald J. Trump's Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Turkey is the largest and Pakistan is the second largest host country for refugees worldwide. Turkey has nearly 3.5 million refugees mostly from Syria. Pakistan has 1.4 million refugees mainly of Afghan origin. Germany is the only western country that shows up among the top 10 host countries for refugees. Most of the rest are Muslim majority countries.

The number of Muslim refugees admitted into the U.S. dropped from more than 9,000 in the 2017 fiscal year to fewer than 2,000 with less than a month left in FY 2018 — an 80% drop, according to Axios:

Myanmar: A majority of Muslim refugees accepted into the U.S. in FY 2018 have come from Myanmar, where thousands of Muslim-majority Rohingya have been killed in an ethnic cleansing and hundreds of thousands have fled.

Somalia: The number of refugees admitted from the Muslim-majority, African nation of Somalia has dropped by 96% compared to last fiscal year. For no known reasons, the White House expressed particular concern over allowing refugees from Somalia into the U.S., former chief of the refugee affairs division at USCIS Barbara Stack told Zoe Chace in the latest episode of This American Life.

The year of Islamophobia began in earnest on January 20, 2017 with the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump who called for "total and complete shutdown" of  Muslims entering the United States during his successful electoral campaign. Among the first executive orders he signed was a "Muslim Ban" from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Then came an avalanche of a large number of Islamophobic tweets and retweets from Trump's twitter account. Some recent Trump retweets were of tweets from Britain First's Jayda Fransen. These tweets and retweets were swiftly denounced by top British and Dutch officials. Trump did not apologize.

Trump developed a pattern of using terror attacks to tweet against Muslims while ignoring similar or worse terror attacks by others.

Trump closed the year with recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a recognition that prior US administrations had withheld pending negotiations and final settlement of the issues between Israelis and Palestinians.

Only 20,918 refugees have so far been admitted to the U.S., despite the cap being set at 45,000 for fiscal year 2018. Of those admitted, Muslim refugees have been hit the hardest with their share dropping to 14.5% while the Christian refugees share rose to nearly 71%, according to data compiled by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). This data provides incontrovertible evidence of U.S. President Donald J. Trump's Islamophobia and xenophobia. The simultaneous rise of Neo Nazis in the West and the Hindu Nazis in India represents a very serious and growing threat to world peace. Their combined menace can lead to further global instability and increased violence if these trends are not halted and reversed soon. I hope good sense prevails among the voters in these countries to pull the world back from the brink of human catastrophe.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Hindu Nationalists Love Nazis

Islamophobia Goes Mainstream in 2017

A Conversation With White Nationalist Jared Taylor on Race in America

Lynchistan: India is the Lynching Capital of the World

Modi and Trump

Anders Breivik: Islamophobia in Europe and India

Hindu Nationalism Goes Global

Hindutva: The Legacy of the British Raj

Stop Violence Against Indians in Australia!

There has been a slew of apparently racially-motivated attacks targeting Indians, resulting in the tragic stabbing death of a young Indian student Nitin Garg in Australia this week.

Last year also saw several vicious attacks on Indians, including the use of a petrol bomb thrown at an Indian young man sitting in his house, sending shock waves throughout the Indian community in Australia. Protest marches were organized in both Melbourne and Sydney. Spontaneous street rallies happened in Harris Park, a suburb of western Sydney with a large Indian population. The protests drew attention of the international media, with coverage in India especially widespread and critical of Australia. Representatives of the Indian government met with the Australian government officials to express concerns and demand that Indians be protected. The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, expressed regret and called for the attackers to be brought to justice. And yet, there seems to be no end in sight. Just yesterday, another student Jaspreet Singh was set on fire and he suffered 20 per cent burns including on his arms, chest and face.

Indian students make up the second largest group, after the Chinese, of foreign students in Australia for their graduate education. From 2004 to 2009 the number of Indians studying in Australia rose from 30,000 to 97,000 with 45,000 of these living in Melbourne, 32,000 in Adelaide and the remainder in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, according to a Wikipedia entry. Some come from the rural parts of India, with most coming to Australia to seek permanent residency. The cost of living in Australian cities has made it necessary for many of these students to live in cheaper and more distant suburbs, where there is an increased risk of encountering violent crime.

In spite of the regularity of brutal attacks singling out Indian immigrants, the Australian authorities continue to downplay, even deny the racial angle. Unless such crimes are treated as hate crimes and seriously prosecuted and punished, it is likely that the crime wave will continue, and probably get worse.

These attacks are a reminder to all South Asians and others of foreign origins living in the West, including North America, Europe and Australia, that intolerance, racism and xenophobia are alive and well in many parts of the world. Xenophobia, in particular, continues to rear its ugly head in various forms, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. We must condemn it in all its various forms in our own best interest.

Let me conclude with a famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemoeller:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out.

Related Links:

Peace, Not Prejudice at Berkeley

Quality of Higher Education in South Asia

Pakistani-American Elected Mayor in Washington

Edible Arrangements--Pakistani-American's Success Story

Pakistani-Americans in Silicon Valley

HDF Fundraiser in Silicon Valley For Pakistan

Pakistani Diaspora in America

Asian-Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues

New York City's Pakistani Population

Pakistani-Americans in NYC

NED Alumni Convention Draws 400

NEDians Convention 2007 in Silicon Valley

Muslim Demographics in America

Pakistanis in America

Pakistani-Americans Wikipedia Entry

Illegal Immigration From India to America Hits 125%

Pakistanis Find US Easier Fit than Britain

Portrait of a Giving Community

India's Washington Lobby

Occupations of Pakistani-Americans--New York Times