by Hossein Khorram (July 23, 2020)

Former Vice-President Joe Biden addressed the Million Muslim Votes summit, an initiative backed by Muslim Brotherhood activism on Monday by video and made three promises.

One: He would end the ban on travel to the US from countries that cannot adequately vet their citizens for terrorist links. He referred to this wrongly as a “Muslim ban” and said he would end it “on day one.”

President Trump’s effort to curb terror attacks in the US by restricting access to countries that can reasonably vet their citizens was upheld by the Supreme Court in June of 2018. Only those mostly Muslim-majority countries from which Islamist groups have directly or indirectly threatened the United States with terror are subjected to this restriction. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials have repeatedly stated that they are determined to destroy American cities and turn the White House into a mosque! The Iranian regime has disguised their most dangerous terrorists as scholars, tourists, and businessmen in order to enter the United States as sleeper cells, waiting for the opportune moment. I am American and I agree with President Trump’s first priority to protect the safety and security of US citizens, not the convenience of foreign travelers. Mr. Biden’s plan to drop the additional security protocols, in the hope of appeasing those mostly rogue regimes, will only make our nation more vulnerable to terror and our foreign policy more meager in advocating for human rights where it is most needed.

Two: Biden promised to “appoint Muslim personnel” in his would-be administration and work with Congress to pass stalled hate speech legislation to fight “Islamicphobia,” by which he meant Islamophobia.

Hate-speech legislation is the thin edge of the wedge aimed at suppressing speech. This is plainly unconstitutional, but Biden has pledged to try to pass such legislation anyway. This should call his judgment into question.

America is an exceptional nation in many ways, one of which is to make immigrants feel welcome and at home in their new country. America is always the first choice for all immigrants, particularly those from Muslim nations, because they are treated with the respect and dignity they can’t get in their own motherlands. Mr. Biden is distorting the truth by fabricating racial tensions against Muslims when we have none for his political gain. How would the son of a Muslim, with Hussein as his middle name, be elected as the 44th U.S. President? Would we have Muslim members of Congress if the U.S. was suffering from Islamophobia?  

Misusing religion as a tool to divide our nation by misinforming a group of newcomers for Mr. Biden’s own political gain is truly un-American. America is the only nation on the planet that does NOT discriminate on any basis and in particular, on the basis of religion. As a Muslim-American, I have the honor to lead the Trump Victory in Washington State, when many more wanted that position. This is a testimony of our nation’s grace and love of all Americans.

Three: Mr. Biden said he thinks “Islam should be taught in schools.”

This is another one of the former VP’s deceitful statements, designed to inflame American Muslims for his political gain. The founders of our nation made a wise choice by separating religion from Government and for that reason no public school is allowed to teach any religion, including Islam. Mr. Biden, of course, knows this full well, but his listeners, as new immigrants, may not.

Finally, the reason most Muslim immigrants left their motherlands is the fact that those Muslim-majority nations force their ideological version of Islam, most of it political, on the populace. They do this in the workplace, in entertainment…. all the way to our most precious and vulnerable children at school. We Muslim immigrants have suffered more than most from religion being misused as a tool of state propaganda.

If Mr. Biden really cared for the well-being of Muslims, he would have voiced his opposition to the millions of Muslims being arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region who are interned in “reeducation camps,” or better said “concentration camps,” by the Chinese communist government. The Trump Administration is the only government which has fiercely criticized and threatened sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party for its human rights violations against Chinese Muslims.

I am asking Mr. Biden to refrain from victimizing American Muslims by misusing Islam as the tool of his election propaganda.

Hossein Khorram is an American Muslim, Vice-Chair of AMCD and Trump Victory Washington State Finance Co-Chair. The views expressed here are his own.