President Donald Trump said he is not barring refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries because of their religion.
But few, if any, of the people who protested this weekend in cities and airports across the country — and especially those who were motivated by their own religious convictions — believe that.
Nesima Aberra, American University graduate student (Muslim)
Ayelet Hines, communications director, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights group (Jewish)
Rabbi Rachel Gartner, Georgetown University chaplain (Jewish)
“As Jews, we’ve been called all sorts of names. We’ve been deemed dangerous over and over again, at different parts of our history, and that’s never been true. And so it is now, those who are being deemed dangerous or a threat, we know are not. And it’s not just we know that. It’s proven in every study that’s ever done. So the facts betray what’s going on here, which is serious religious bias and persecution.”
Kim Coleman (Nichiren Buddhist)
“As a person not practicing the dominant faith of Christianity in America, I’m not here for myself. I’m here for the 134 million people in those seven countries who are no longer welcome here, and all refugees across the world, that are no longer welcome in America. At the same time, I know that anyone could be next. So just because you’re not Muslim, you need to see the injustice in this. You need to take action to any extent that you possibly can.”
Leigh Ainsworth (Christian)
“I just think that as Christians we’re called to love other people. And we’re supposed to spread God’s word to other people, and I think that includes people of other religions, and we aren’t showing love if we’re telling people they’re not welcome here. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should turn people away because they are different or they have different beliefs. Instead we should be welcoming them, and having open and frank conversations with them about our faith and how it might differ, but at the same time how we might share similar beliefs.”
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