It's not just a Muslim ban, it's much worse

With a stroke of the pen on a misdirected and, I believe, malicious Executive Order (EO), President Donald Trump unleashed a dynamic that will, I fear, have consequences as far-reaching and damaging to my country and my community as the Bush administration's wrong-headed responses to the September 11 terror attacks. What the various provisions of the EO have done is deepen Arab popular anger at the US, provide ISIS with a public relations gift, fuel Islamophobic fear here at home, while, at the same time, exacerbating sectarian tensions within the Arab community. Suspending and placing restrictions on immigration and refugees from seven mostly Arab and Muslim-majority countries will not make America safer. The data are clear. Immigrants from the countries on the White House list have not posed a threat to the US. What the EO has, in fact, done is cancel the visas of between 60,000 to 100,000 individuals.