While thousands of Americans – and many around the globe – express outrage over Donald Trump’s recent travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries, which has caused nothing but chaos and confusion, there is one group that is celebrating tonight: terrorists.
According to a new report from the Washington Post, pro-ISIS social media accounts are rejoicing over Trump’s latest action, saying it will help them convince more American Muslims to join their ranks.
More from the report:
Comments posted to pro-Islamic State social media accounts predicted that President Trump’s executive order would persuade American Muslims to side with the extremists. One posting hailed the U.S. president as “the best caller to Islam,” while others predicted that Trump would soon launch a new war in the Middle East.
“[Islamic State leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi has the right to come out and inform Trump that banning Muslims from entering America is a ‘blessed ban,’” said one posting to a pro-Islamic State channel on Telegram, a social-media platform. The writer compared the executive order to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Islamic militant leaders at the time hailed as a “blessed invasion” that ignited anti-Western fervor across the Islamic world.
Several postings suggested that Trump was fulfilling the predictions of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al-Qaeda leader and preacher who famously said that the “West would eventually turn against its Muslim citizens.” Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
“When U.S. President Donald Trump says ‘We don’t want them here’ and bans the Muslim immigrants from Muslim countries, there is one thing that comes to our mind,” said another posting, beneath a banner of al-Awlaki and his quote.
Another posting on the Telegram channel “Abu Magrebi” said Trump’s actions “clearly revealed the truth and harsh reality behind the American government’s hatred toward Muslims.”
While Trump and his supporters claim this isn’t about religion and is instead about making America safe, zero deadly terrorist attacks have been carried out since Sept. 11, 2001, by any one of the seven Muslim nations he’s targeting.
There is also no arguing that Trump’s executive order originated from his initial proposal, announced here in 2015, which called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The administration may have found a new way to dress it up, as former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani admitted today, but it still meets the initial goal that Trump set of imposing an unconstitutional religious test on those coming to the U.S.
This is why thousands of Americans and leaders from all over the world are standing united against Donald Trump’s discriminatory and un-American executive order.
Not only would it have failed to prevent any of the recent terror incidents in the U.S., but it’s a complete abandonment of American values that will only alienate peaceful Muslims in the United States and embolden terrorists who want to carry out attacks against our country.