US Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) the first Muslim U.S. Representative said President Donald Trump’s 90-day ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries is “a religiously based ban.” He was being interviewed on the TV show Face the Nation. “If they can ban Muslims, why can’t they ban Mormons, why can’t they ban Seventh-day Adventists, why can’t [they] move into ethnic groups?”
Here is the key part of the conversation as it happened:
“It is a religiously based ban, which is something that our — our Constitution says Congress shall make no law establishing a religion or abridge the free exercise thereof. This is a violation of equal protection. It’s a religiously based ban,” Ellison said.
Host John Dickerson compared Trump’s travel ban to what former President Jimmy Carter did after the Iranian hostage crisis and when former President Barack Obama paused the processing of Iraqi refugees.
“Congressman, the president’s defenders would say that, after the Iranian hostage crisis, Jimmy Carter asked Iranian students to report to immigration offices,” said host John Dickerson. “During the Obama administration, the State Department paused Iraqi refugee processing because of terrorism concerns, so that what Donald Trump is doing here, it may be bigger, but it’s in keeping with what previous presidents have done.”
“You know what? We have never had a religious-based ban before, and they can’t deny that this is a Muslim ban,” responded Ellison. “It is a Muslim ban. On the campaign trail, he said he wanted a Muslim ban. He said on national television that there would be other religious groups that would receive priority. This is a Muslim ban,” Ellison insisted.
“Rudy Giuliani, who helped him write it, said that they started out with the intention of a Muslim ban, and then they sort of languaged it up so to try to avoid that label, but it is a religiously based ban…” he added.
“If they can ban Muslims, why can’t they ban Mormons, why can’t they ban Seventh-day Adventists, why can’t [they] move into ethnic groups?” Ellison said.
“Congressman, but, in this case, they have named countries which were named on lists already by the Obama administration,” said Dickerson. “And if it were a Muslim ban, why wouldn’t they ban Pakistan and Indonesia and Turkey and Egypt? None of those countries are affected.”
“Well, according to Reince Priebus, they’re working on it, right? That’s what I heard him just tell you, that they might just add more, but the fact is, is that terrorism, a horrible scourge on the planet, comes from all kinds of places, some where the majority of the population is Muslim, some not, and it even comes from within our country, and the fact is that we cannot make a religious-based distinction,” Ellison said.
“We have to go based on the evidence that we find that people are actually engaged in…” Ellison added.
Could Mr. Trump’s temporary immigration ban on citizens of certain countries in which Muslim extremists are active in terrorism be used one day as a precedence to restrict the movements of other religious groups like Seventh-day Adventists and Mormons? That’s how all undermining of the constitution starts, whether surveillance, torture in secret prisons, extra-judicial killings, etc. – in the name of fighting religious extremism in the form of terrorism. Eventually, the target will morph to those originally unintended and even unrelated to the original purpose. The immigration ban may well be the start of preparations for the following statement to be fulfilled.
“We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, page 22.
Rep. Keith Ellison: ‘If They Can Ban Muslims, Why Can’t They Ban Mormons…?’
