The large acceptance of racist and xenophobic language is encouraging violence against minority populations. On November 23rd, white supremacists shot five black lives matter protesters in Minneapolis outside a police station and escaped. On Nov. 21, Donald Trump supporters beat up a black man who chanted “Black Lives Matter!” at a Trump rally, which Trump would support the next day. Today, Western Washington University cancelled all classes due to hate speech found online that targets people of color. The Seattle FBI is investigating a white supremacist terrorist threat against Seattle area mosques and Muslims.
In mid-November, members at a Texas mosque arrived to find pages of the Quran smeared with human feces. Anti-Muslim rhetoric and small-scale attacks have escalated dramatically since the Daesh terror attacks on Paris earlier in the month. 31 governors have called for a halt to allowing Syrian refugees into the country to escape from Daesh brutality. Among those governors is Gov. Butch Otter, Republican from my home state of Idaho.
On Nov. 16, Otter sent President Obama a letter demanding that he “halt the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program until the vetting process for all foreigners crossing U.S. borders is fully reviewed and state concerns about the program are addressed.”
“It makes no sense under the best of circumstances for the United States to allow people into our country who have the avowed desire to harm our communities, our institutions and our people,” Governor Otter said. “The savage and senseless ISIS-driven attacks in Paris illustrate the essential inhumanity of terrorism and make it clearer than ever that we must make protecting our homeland from this threat our primary focus.”
The primary argument touted by Otter is that the vetting process for refugees is too lenient. Underlying this argument is the implied assumption that Syrian refugees, who are majority Muslim, “have the avowed desire to harm our communities, our institutions and our people.”
In response the the underlying assumption, it must be said that this sort of broad-struck portrait of ignorance painted by Otter is absolutely false and harmful. First, by associating Muslims with Daesh terror, Otter is legitimizing the terror group’s propaganda and self-avowed association with Islam. It is imperative that we do not allow Daesh to claim religious legitimacy in Islam. Second, the avowed desire of refugees is to escape political or religious persecution—namely, Syrian refugees are seeking to escape Daesh. Third, this type of attack on Muslims validates the Daesh narrative of the Western war against Islam. This is the most effective element of the recruitment strategy to join Daesh. Butch Otter is playing directly into the hands of the terrorists with his xenophobic hatred of Muslims.
Regarding the primary argument, John Oliver explains that the idea that a terrorist would pose as a refugee is absurd, especially considering how easy it is to enter the country on other visas (which have a less intrusive vetting process).
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As a former resident of Idaho, I am appalled to see the state embrace hate and fear in an official capacity. Let Our Vulnerable Emigrate has started a petition demanding that Otter step down and apologize. If you care about refugees and making statements against state-sponsored racism and xenophobia, please, sign and share.
(Oh, and before you comment saying that we should just wait till November to say anything to Otter, he isn’t up for reelection until 2018. If you think petitions are pointless, give me a better alternative.)