By Andrew Schatkin
I would like to respond to your reporter’s article concerning the president’s travel ban.
In this article, the reporter quotes Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as saying that the president’s ban is discriminatory and undermines the state’s residents and businesses. He reports a coalition of 17 attorneys general have filed a brief opposing this ban. I find the statement in this article completely inaccurate as targeting the president as biased against Muslims.
For some years, there have been a series of violent attacks from probably a small minority within certain Muslim countries. The president does not include in this ban the most populist Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Algeria and Egypt. Hence, it is not a Muslim ban.
More to the point, there have been a long series of jihadist attacks not only involving our country, but a number of European countries. A Jewish woman in France was set on fire and stabbed by Muslim jihadists. Let me state that I am fully convinced that most Muslim people are law-abiding citizens, except for a small minority in their societies who engage in these attacks.
I must state I recently had an email from a Christian woman in Pakistan who stated that she had been praying for the election of President Trump. For better or for worse, Christians are in a state of persecution in many countries.
Most recently in Palm Beach, there was a stabbing and homicide by a Muslim jihadist. Personally, I entertain no hate or prejudice to the Muslim community, who God significantly loves, values and cherishes. The president’s ban is a response on the ground of national security to protect American lives.
The article by your reporter ignores these attacks, which have consistently occurred over many years. In the face of this violence brought about by a thin minority in the present world, the president has no choice but to impose this ban on a practical basis.
Attorney General Schneiderman filed a suit in federal court to block the citizenship question for the 2020 Census. The purpose of this question is to determine the number of people illegally here in the United States. The president is concerned with illegal citizens who take jobs away from the most vulnerable persons in our society — including black and Latino residents — for low wages and no benefits.
The president’s actions toward persons here illegally here does not make him anti-immigrant, but anti-illegal-immigrant, and makes him a person who cares about the needy who reside in our country. Both of these lawsuits against President Trump brought about by the state attorney general of New York miss the point of the travel ban and citizenship question.
That point is the president cares about the lives of the American people and cares about the employment that they so desperately need. These poverty-stricken legal residents may be forced to join the army and then die in the battlefields of the Middle East.
Andrew Schatkin
Bayside
