During the 2016 US election campaign, Donald Trump’s proposal to ban the entry of all Muslims into the US for a period of time was met with a furious outrage around the world. Democrats wasted no time in attacking the presidential candidate, and even the Republicans, from the then Senator Mike Pence (now vice-president) to the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan took to condemn such a ban, calling it “unconstitutional” and “un-American”. Everyone wrote off the proposal as just another incendiary idea by the madcap Donald Trump to rake in the attention, and when the proposal was not repeated during the rest of the election campaign, the whole country, including the Republican administration, breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that the ban is firmly in place, the outrage is far less than anticipated. Donald Trump has not banned Muslims from entry into the US, but by putting a blanket ban on all travellers from five Muslim majority countries, he has done essentially the same thing. The effect is the same: families are torn apart, professionals are kept from their jobs in the US, and even green card holders are being indiscriminately being detained at the airport. This is the promised Muslim ban in all but name.

In response, the US has failed its self-avowed democratic and secular roots. A handful of protests at certain airports where travellers are detained has been the only meaningful action. Politicians and officials have failed to raise a voice or condemn this action. His party seems behind him. Racism was never dead; it was just silent due to norms of political correctness. Mr. Trump has made sure that those who were skulking the shadows, especially the Republicans, can come out of the woodwork.

The response overseas is also a saddening one. The British Prime Minister initially refused to condemn the ban calling it “a matter for the US to decide”, eventually releasing a different statement under pressure. Barring a few – like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – the rest of the world has stayed silent. All the while, legal visitors to the US are being detained because of the country of their origin, and essentially, their faith. American selfishness and inanity has once again ground the world to a halt, and inconvenienced thousands of people around the world.