Under the slogan of “Make America Great Again”, President Donald Trump has been able to get away with a lot of racist, misogynist, and uneducated remarks. The travel ban that he introduced as a result of an executive order has been partially restored by the Supreme Court (SC) of United States of America (USA) this Wednesday.

The ban will not affect permanent residents or those who have already applied for American visas. However, new applicants will face a lot of scrutiny and discrimination; particularly those from six majority Muslim countries – Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen. While USA has the right to tighten its security and crosscheck every individual that enters their land, targeting only Muslim countries is downright discriminatory.

The terrorism that prevails on their soil and in the rest of the world is not because of one particular religion or one particular brand of people. It stems from a lot of reasons and USA has a huge part in it. And if they really were against the terrorists of the world, especially those who were part of the 9/11 attacks, Saudi Arabia would have been in that list too. It isn’t, which clearly means that there is an agenda behind targeting these vulnerable countries and labelling them threats.

The ban makes it difficult for those seeking refuge or asylum because the new requirement is that in order to gain entry, a close relative must already be present in USA. And they do not consider extended family as close relatives. Several lives will be threatened and lost as a result of this atrocious rule. It also is a clear violation of their Immigration and Nationality Act 1965, which clearly states that no person can be “discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, and nationality, place of birth or place of residence”.

Religious prejudice at state level is an immature move, especially when it is evident that Muslim countries suffer the most as a result of terrorism. Besides, a report by American Immigration Council found that higher immigration hasn’t boosted overall crime rates, and there are proportionally fewer foreign born people in jail than US-born people. Analysis of census data from 1980 through to 2010 show immigrants are one-half to one-fifth as likely to be incarcerated as those born in the US.

Labelling Muslims as terrorists will not prove fruitful and will only make matters worse. Any terror stricken country deserves help; this is no time to isolate them.