Donald Trump's inauguration.
Executive Order Bans Muslims.
Mosque burning.

During 2017-JAN.

Part 1

₁

Overview:

When the votes at the 2016-NOV presidential election were counted, Hillary Clinton (D) won the popular vote by a margin of almost three million votes. However, the public does not actually get to elect the president in the U.S. That is the responsibility of the 586 electors who form the Electoral College system. That system was created centuries ago to preserve the institution of slavery. Although slavery has been abolished for over 1.5 centuries in the U.S., the College is still in place. Members of the College determined that Donald Trump (R) would become president, even though he lost the popular vote.

He was sworn into office on 2017-JAN-20. During the following days, there was a series of serious attacks and displays of hatred by members of the public that were directed against religious minorities -- both Muslims and Jews -- in the U.S. and Canada. Some commentators are speculating that President Trump's anti-Muslim words and actions during the early days of his presidency may have triggered at least some of these events.

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Timeline of anti-religious events during President Trumps first days in office:

• Friday, JAN-20: President-elect Donald Trump took the oath of office, and became the 45th president of the United States.

  ₂

• Friday afternoon, JAN-27: The first Muslim Ban by executive order of President Trump:

After only one week in office, President Trump signed an executive order banning people from some predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

The order:

"... suspended entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen." ₃

The order was broadly written. It adversely affected even some people who had earlier obtained green cards and had been been working in the U.S. It caused great hardship to those who had gone on a visit to their country of origin, and were returning to their homes in the U.S. Chaos resulted, as people returning from the Middle East disembarked from their airplanes, and became trapped in the airport.

Thousands of demonstrators went to their local airports to protest the executive order. Large numbers of lawyers also went there to volunteer their services to help the people trapped there. Time Magazine's online web site showed a picture of some demonstrators at O'hare International Airport's Terminal 5 in Chicago, IL. One person held up a hand-painted sign with a saying by Desmond Tutu:

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

Another person held up a printed sign displaying a statement downloaded from the www.refusefascism.org web site, saying:

"NO! This fascist regime must be stopped before it starts." ₄

Also embedded in President Trump's executive order was a mandate that Homeland Security must start issuing a weekly report that makes:

"... public a comprehensive list of [all] criminal actions committed by aliens."

The main effect of such a weekly report would be to raise fear among the general population that they are personally in danger of being attacked by aliens. A population that lives in fear is much easier for the government to control.

The Daily Banter web site responded with an article that criticized the idea of the weekly report, saying:

"The weekly list of immigrant crime is appalling and will simply fan the flames of xenophobia and hate. It is worth noting that research has consistently shown that immigrant populations have markedly lower incarceration rates than U.S. born citizens, and the notion of the immigrant criminal is a persistent myth with little evidence to support it. But then of course Trump has no time for evidence or facts, and is promising to govern based on his own deeply paranoid and hateful instincts." ₅

• Friday evening, JAN-27: A Victoria, Texas mosque burned to the ground: the Islamic Center of Victoria. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

  Mustafaa Carroll, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) office in Texas said:

"Because of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation, and because of the recent spike in hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions and individuals, we urge investigators to keep the possibility of a bias motive for this fire in mind." ₆

Update: On FEB-08, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Victoria Fire Marshal's Office, who jointly investigated the fire, concluded that it was a case of arson. However they also concluded that there is no indication that the fire was a "biased crime." A $30,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest or indictment of the person or persons responsible. In Texas, the confidential Arson Hotline is at:
1-877-4-FIRE-45. ₇

• Saturday, JAN-28: The American Civil Liberties Union launched a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to block the executive order. The two plaintiffs are Iraqi immigrants: Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi. Sensitive to the chaos caused by the president's order, District Judge Ann Donnelly held a hearing on the same day, and very quickly issued a temporary injunction, effective across the entire U.S.

It said, in part:

"The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioner and others similarly situated violates their rights to Due Process and Equal Protection." ₈

These two processes are guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The same amendment and processes have been used in the past by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past to legalize interracial marriages, gay marriages, consensual sexual activity in private by same-sex adults, and many other behaviors across the U.S.

Some large and predominately Muslim countries that were exempted from President Trump's Executive Order include: Egypt, Lebanon , Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps by coincidence, these are countries where Trump is believed to have business ties. ₈

Marjorie Cohn, writing for the Jurist.org web site remarked that Trump's executive order [EO]:

violates the Establishment Clause, the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Take Care Clause of the Constitution. It also violates the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); both are treaties the United States has ratified, making them part of US law under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. The EO violates the Immigration and Nationality Act as well. ... In the face of legal challenges, six federal courts have temporarily stayed implementation of parts of the EO, indicating that petitioners have a strong likelihood of prevailing on the merits. ₈

Webmaster's note: [bias alert]

As of 2017-FEB-03, just two weeks after his inauguration, President Trump's has violated his oath of office and shredded the Constitution of the United States! Two weeks down, about 200 weeks to go before the next presidential election!

This topic continues in the next essay

Some later essays about President Trump that might interest you:

• Part 2: Court injunction on Muslim ban. Mass murder in Canadian mosque
  
• Part 3: Muslim ban. U.S. Flag defaced with a Nazi Symbol.
  
• Part 4: "What would Jesus Do" about Muslim refugees?
  
• Part 5: Reactions to President Trump's Muslim ban.
• Part 6: Muslim ban. President's approval rating sinks.
• Part 7: Bomb Threats. Reaction to Trump's ban of Muslims.
• Part 8: Reactions to 1st Muslim country ban. Fake news. Second Muslim ban.
• Part 9: U.S. Bomb Threats To Jewish Community Centers Continue:
• Part 10: Bomb threats extend to Canada. Federal courts stop 2nd Muslim ban.
• Part 11: Federal Courts stop 2nd Muslim ban. Trump's approval rating.
• Part 12: Courts' Injunctions on Muslim Ban. Marches on Earth Day 2017.
• Part 13: Trump changing Washington? Travel ban rulings. approval ratings.
• Part 14: Supreme Court Accepts Muslim Ban Appeal. Trump Visits Poland.

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. The "Trump Cube" image was created by Pete Linforth and was downloaded from the Pixabay web site of "free high quality images," at: https://pixabay.com/
2. "President Trump takes the oath of office," USA Today video, 2017-JAN-20, at: http://www.usatoday.com/
3. Michael Shear, et al., "Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide," New York Times, 2017-JAN-28, at: https://www.nytimes.com/
4. Lynne O'Donnell, "President Trump's Immigration Ban Fuels Anger Around the World," Time Magazine, 2017-JAN-29, at: http://time.com/"
5. Ben Cohen, "Trump's Weekly List of Crimes Committed by Immigrants is Straight Up Fascism," The Daily Banter, 2017-JAN-27, at: http://www.thedailybanter.com/
6. Jennifer Earl, "More than 20,000 chip in to rebuild Texas mosque that burned to the ground," CBS News, 2017-JAN-31, at: http://www.cbsnews.com/
7. Jon Wilcox, "Victoria mosque fire ruled arson," Victoria Advocate, 2017-FEB-08, at: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/
8. Marjorie Cohn, "Trump's Unconstitutional Muslim Ban," Jurist.org, 2017-FEB-03, at: http://www.jurist.org/

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Copyright © 2017 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last update on: 2017-FEB-09
Author: B.A. Robinson

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