{"id":63996,"date":"2018-04-25T04:35:12","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T04:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=63996"},"modified":"2018-04-25T04:35:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T04:35:12","slug":"for-muslims-supreme-courts-ruling-on-entry-ban-will-be-statement-of-americas-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/for-muslims-supreme-courts-ruling-on-entry-ban-will-be-statement-of-americas-values.html","title":{"rendered":"For Muslims, Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on entry ban will be statement of America\u2019s values"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Muslims, Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on entry ban will be statement of America\u2019s values<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Mehdi Ostadhassan is a celebrated professor and scientist, a mentor, a husband and father, and has been a North Dakotan for the past nine years.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is also a Muslim and an Iranian national \u2014 a citizen of one of several majority-Muslim countries targeted by President Trump\u2019s entry ban. And despite having a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that seems to match the Trump administration\u2019s preference for a \u201cmerit-based immigration system,\u201d he is now in his fourth year of an increasingly desperate quest for U.S. citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ostadhassan\u2019s immigration woes have nothing to do with Trump\u2019s entry ban, which went into effect last December and which the Supreme Court will begin evaluating Wednesday. But he believes his trouble has everything to do with his being a Muslim. For that reason, Ostadhassan will be waiting, along with millions of others inside and outside the United States, to see what the court decides.<\/span><\/p>\n

He believes the decision has the potential to influence the fortunes not only of those hoping to migrate to the United States but also of those Muslim immigrants already living here. Many fear that a Supreme Court decision upholding the ban would send a powerful negative message about the place of Muslims in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will feel like they\u2019re not welcome in a country that\u2019s supposed to provide all these opportunities and all this freedom, and I think that\u2019s sad,\u201d said Mahsa Payesteh, outreach coordinator for the National Iranian American Council.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Blue Muslim wave: American Muslims launch political campaigns to deliver \u2018sweet justice\u2019 to Trump]<\/span><\/p>\n

With that in mind, the Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the case of Hawaii v. Trump, examining how far the president\u2019s authority extends in determining U.S. immigration policy. At issue is Trump\u2019s September proclamation that banned entry to the United States for citizens of five majority-Muslim countries as well as North Koreans and certain Venezuelan government officials, with limited exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The order was the third iteration of Trump\u2019s original entry ban, which applied to citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries. During his campaign, Trump called for a \u201ctotal and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.\u201d Since taking office, he has argued that the policy is not a Muslim ban, but that it is necessary to protect national security.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case also will determine whether the president violated the Constitution or the Immigration and Nationality Act by discriminating on the basis of religion or nationality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The justices are expected to issue a ruling in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

An estimated 3.4 million Muslims live in the United States, accounting for dozens of nationalities and ethnic heritages. Some, like Ostadhassan, hail from countries targeted by the third version of Trump\u2019s ban \u2014 Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen \u2014 while others immigrated from Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Turkey and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

But regardless of their citizenship status or national origin, many will be interested in the Supreme Court\u2019s decision. To members of one of the United States\u2019 least popular religious minorities, this will be more than a ruling on the president\u2019s authority. It will be a culturally pivotal moment; a statement of the nation\u2019s values.<\/span><\/p>\n

[In travel ban case, Supreme Court considers \u2018the president\u2019 vs. \u2018this president\u2019]<\/span><\/p>\n

Since its implementation in December, the ban has made \u201cmany members of my community feel like they\u2019re second-class citizens, \u201dsaid Debbie Almontaser, a board member of the Yemeni American Merchants Association in New York who knows Yemeni Americans across the country, including two of her nephews and one niece, who have spouses stranded abroad. \u201cLike, you\u2019re American, but we\u2019re not going to let you have that American Dream,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Trump was campaigning for the presidency, his comments about Muslims \u2014 tying immigrants to the Islamic State and as president retweeting anti-Muslim propaganda videos and appointing advisers and Cabinet secretaries who have characterized Islam as dangerous \u2014 have harmed their American experience, many say.<\/span><\/p>\n

FBI data showed a precipitous rise in reported anti-Muslim assaults during the election year. In 2017, 50 percent of American Muslims said they had experienced at least one instance of religious discrimination in the past year, according to Pew Research Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s xenophobic rhetoric, both prior to and during the course of his presidency, emboldened those who sought to express their anti-Muslim bias and provided a veneer of legitimacy to bigotry,\u201d the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a report released Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Supreme Court decision affirming the entry ban would, some fear, perpetuate that trend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge for Muslims,\u201d said Faiza Patel co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University School of Law\u2019s Brennan Center for Justice. The president\u2019s words and policies have \u201creally shaken their faith in what America really stands for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Ostadhassan arrived in the Midwest from Iran nine years ago, the United States offered an opportunity for him to earn a PhD in petroleum engineering and presented a fountain of other academic possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the years since, Ostadhassan, 34, got married and had a child. Most recently, he developed an idea for a new method of cancer research using technology that he had previously used to analyze shale, and he won the support of the university\u2019s medical school in the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, near the end of 2017 and after a years-long wait, the U.S. government told him that his application for permanent-resident status had been denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is basically the end of my professional career,\u201d he said this month, after the university was compelled to terminate his employment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ostadhassan is one of several people named in a class-action lawsuit filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union, before his residency application was denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges warrantless religious discrimination towards Muslims in the U.S. immigration system through a secretive Obama-era program called Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CARRP), and which the ACLU says singles out and delays the applications of Muslims without valid evidence of national security concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the case won\u2019t be directly impacted by the Supreme Court decision because it focuses on an existing vetting program, the lawsuit invokes Trump\u2019s travel ban, outlining Trump\u2019s comments and policies toward Islam and Muslims. Trump has vowed to implement “extreme vetting” \u2014 or as the ACLU reads it, make CARRP and other programs more discriminatory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The broader implication for many Muslim across the country is that the Supreme Court\u2019s decision on the entry ban will send a message about all kinds of religious discrimination, including existing government programs, that activists say target Muslims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the Supreme Court rules against the entry ban, Ostadhassan is still to have months or years of waiting and potential court battles ahead of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if the court upholds the ban, he will have far less reason to be optimistic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one hundred percent a Muslim ban,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/for-muslims-supreme-courts-ruling-on-entry-ban-will-be-statement-of-americas-values\/2018\/04\/24\/82db52c0-3f5b-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ad779793a60c<\/span><\/p>\n

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