The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) welcomes the holds placed on President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban by federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland. CIOGC maintains its position that the ban is discriminatory against Muslims and supports numerous civil rights organizations’ assessment that the ban is unconstitutional.
“We thank the federal judges for upholding the values represented by our Constitution,” said Dr. Bassam Osman, Chair of CIOGC. “We support the judges’ conclusions that the statements made by the Trump administration, combined with the lack of evidence for their claims, illustrate an intent to specifically discriminate against Muslims with this travel ban.”
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu stated yesterday that the ban represents “significant and unrebutted evidence of religious animus” and cited public statements by Mr. Trump explicitly calling for discrimination against Muslims, such as a press release titled “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
U.S. Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland granted a preliminary nationwide injunction of the ban, concluding that upholding national security is not the purpose of the ban and that the plaintiffs failed to sufficiently develop their argument or provide justifiable evidence to implement the order.
CIOGC also welcomes the electoral loss of Dutch anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders in the Netherlands’ parliamentary elections. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Wilders is a part of an Islamophobia Network that propagates anti-Muslim sentiment. In particular, Wilders has campaigned to associate the holy Qur’an to Mein Kampf, was charged in 2009 for hate-incitement against Muslims, and is a regular contributor of anti-Muslim articles on Breitbart – the online publication formerly led by President Trump’s chief advisor, Steve Bannon.
“Geert Wilders has a long history of hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric. Wilders’ loss to Mark Rutte for the office of Netherlands prime minister is welcomed as a rejection of hate and Islamophobia.” said Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin, CIOGC co-founder and former Chair.