Whatever is happening in the US today is beyond one’s stretch of imagination
ISLAMABAD: The newly elected 45th president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has truly stood by his words. Good or bad, at least he must be credited with one thing. Of a number of commitments he had made to the American nation during his election campaign, one strong one he made was that if elected to power, he would impose a travel ban on refugees and immigrants coming into America, particularly from the Islamic countries.
On January 27, US President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order to suspend refugee arrivals and bar visas for travellers from seven Islamic countries namely Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Though Pakistan’s name did not figure in the executive order under reference, one could rightly preempt that it will appear in the next executive order that US President Donald Trump is keenly waiting to ink. Pakistan should be fully prepared to face the upcoming travel ban the US government is contemplating to impose, particularly after White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, without mincing his words, told a news outlet that the names of countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries may be added to the roster of banned countries as we move forward.
The executive order signed by US President Trump to impose a travel ban initially on seven Muslim countries has come under scathing criticism from not only the affected countries but also from other civilised nations of the world. Owing to this pressure, the ban has been lifted temporarily. The Americans continue to vociferously condemn President Trump’s executive order to impose a visa ban on Muslim countries. One can vividly see them vent their anger and concern over the critical issue by taking out protest marches in the US capital and across many other states of the US.
While civilised societies continue to condemn the US government’s travel ban decision, and a US federal judge blocks part of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the incumbent US government seems adamant to further extend this list to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and other Muslim countries. In this highly inflammable scenario, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s offer to accommodate the refugees affected and expected to be affected in the future by the US travel ban has, indeed, come as a breath of fresh air for them. His courage and magnanimity have been immensely appreciated by the civilised world.
Whatever is happening in the US today is beyond one’s stretch of imagination. The civilised world in general and the Muslim world in particular are at a loss to understand as to how things would shape up, under the new US administration, in the days and months to come. If this is how the beginning is, the end could be even worse.
M Fazal Elalhi
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2017.
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