Today the Supreme Court Uphold's State Sponsored Religious Discrimination
Today the Supreme Court has upheld Trump's Muslim Ban. This decision greenlights religious and ethnic discrimination that runs counter to the inclusionary principals that our country aspires to. Throughout the morning I've been receiving calls from concerned American-Muslim families about how this decision will impact them. Whether it's safe from them to travel overseas to visit their loved ones. We've received calls from international students who went overseas for summer vacation who are now unsure whether they will be allowed to finish their education in the U.S. The list of impacted peoples is likely to grow.
The Supreme Court has been wrong on major decision before. Consider the Dred Scott decision, which started right here in our city, and ended with a decision by the Supreme Court in favor of slavery. Remember the Korematsu decision which permitted the incarceration of thousands of people based on their Japanese ancestry.
Donald Trump ran on a campaign to put in place, "a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.". Two days after entering into office they introduce the first Muslim Ban Executive Order which created chaos across the country. Today's decision attacks Muslim communities and opens the door to government-and-court-
In the decanting opinion it was argued,
"By blindly accepting the government's misguided invitation to sanction a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity toward a disfavored group, all in the name of a superficial claim of national security, the Court redeploys the same dangerous logic under lying Korematsu and merely replaces one "gravely wrong" decision with another."
Regardless of this decision our fight continues. CAIR-Missouri will continue to fight for religious freedom and justice all people. We will continue to fight for Muslim families and communities, to purse legal avenues on behalf of impacted people and to demand that legislators take action to end the Muslim Ban.
Most importantly, I promise you, that we will continue to organize, mobilize, and defend Muslim communities from bigoted policies - whether they are endorsed by the Supreme Court or not.
Sincerely,
Faizan Syed
Executive Director of CAIR-Missouri