Muslims decry Donald Trump’s proposal – ‘Comments disgraceful, absurd’

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LOS ANGELES, Dec 8, (Agencies): US presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” immigrants and visitors alike, because of what he describes as hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans. The Associated Press is asking Muslims in other countries for their thoughts on his proposal: Bassem Youssef, former talk show host known as the Jon Stewart of the Middle East: (On Twitter) “I didn’t know Donald Trump was fluent in Nazi.”

Yara Faris, 23-year-old journalist in the West Bank. She hopes to study international journalism at Columbia University: “The US will always be the best place to study, and I don’t think the US would deny Muslims entry just because they are Muslims.” “I see Trump as a crazy man. He always gives crazy statements and recently I read a report that shows that 60 percent of Trump’s statements were based on wrong information.” Usama Sallah, prominent Palestinian businessman in Jerusalem who lived in the US for 14 years. “I think that these statements are a shame. This is not the United States that I knew, and I’m sure that the majority of the Americans don’t agree with it because it doesn’t represent American values.” “I will continue to visit the United States whenever possible because I know that America is a great country in which there is no place for such racist opinions. And for those who agree with him, I ask: How would you feel if Arab and Muslim countries decided to ban Americans from entering them?” Ahmed Jalajel, Palestinian journalist in east Jerusalem who visited the US last year as part of a State Department-sponsored program: “I’m sure that what I heard from Trump doesn’t represent the United States.

In America, I have seen a democratic country, nice people who love life, a great country that is ready to receive people from all over the world and a country of great values that Trump certainly doesn’t represent.” “As a Muslim, I don’t think that Trump represents the United States; he only represents himself.” Najib Sayedi, an English professor at a private university in Kabul, Afghanistan: “America calls itself the big defender of human rights among all other countries in the world, so how that would be possible for someone who runs for the Presidency to say so? I would say that if someone runs for the presidency of the United States, he must be very careful in his comments.”

Abdul Hamid, a 27-year-old engineering student at Kabul University in Afghanistan: “I can’t even believe it that someone who runs for the presidency would say so. Let’s say if that Muslims would be even temporarily banned from going to the United States, what happens if a leader from a Muslim country has to go to the US?” “He must apologize to the entire Muslim community. He needs the vote of US Muslim community.” Sam Bahour, a Palestinian- American business consultant who moved from Youngstown, Ohio, to Ramallah, West Bank, in the 1990s, called the comments “disgraceful” and “absurd.” “The backlash is going to be against Muslims.

The Muslim community understands the inherent racism in some pockets of US political life.” “This makes the melting pot not melt at the end of the day.” Muslim Americans are pleading with Trump to stop encouraging violence in demanding a “complete” halt to Muslim immigration after a New York shopkeeper was beaten in a possible hate crime. Republican presidential frontrunner Trump’s inflammatory call is part of what activists have described as an unprecedented anti-Muslim backlash following the Paris attacks and the shooting in California by a couple believed to have turned extremist.

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