A Ban by Any Other Name.

In January 2017, President Trump issued an executive order temporarily barring entry of immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countries to the United States. I am a U.S. citizen and do not belong to any of the banned countries. I was raised as a Muslim, but now identify as an atheist. In fact, many of my Muslim friends and family members who know about my apostasy think of me as a traitor and feel hurt by my decision to leave Islam. One could argue that the Muslim ban technically does not affect me in any adverse way. However, it does. The president’s executive order, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” barred people from seven Muslimmajority countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen) from entering the United States for 90 days. It also barred all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days and indefinitely barred refugees from Syria. The rhetoric from President Trump during his presidential campaign, as well as an interview of New York’s ex-Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, after the order was issued, made it clear that the executive order is specifically intended to prevent Muslims from entering the country. There has been talk of expanding the scope of the order to include other Muslim-majority countries. The ban affects every individual in the United States who self-defines as Muslim, by labeling Muslims as “the other.” Initially, the order even barred permanent residents (green card holders) from one of the banned countries from re-entering the United States, taking away their legal rights without due process. In addition to rejecting people based on religion and nationality, a convenient by-product of this executive order is the disenfranchisement of an entire group of people who live peacefully in the United States. It normalizes the othering of many people without credible evidence that they pose a risk. Imagine being a person who fits the stereotypical profile of a Muslim walking into a coffee shop. For me and many of my Muslim friends and family members, this seemingly ordinary experience now engenders an uneasy feeling of being out of place. We have not experienced this in decades of living in the United States. The order is blatantly xenophobic and dangerous. It attempts to label falsely a diverse group of people as potential terrorists. The Muslim ban has emboldened people who hold racist views to come out of the woodwork and express their views proudly. At the same time, President Trump has expressed plans to revamp Countering Violent Extremism programs to focus solely on Islamist extremism while completely ignoring the danger posed by white nationalists. I have been a staunch critic of religious orthodoxy for many reasons, including its treatment of dissenters like me. However, on January 29, 2017, I joined hands with Muslims and non-Muslims outside the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to protest the immigration ban. I felt a sense of solidarity that I had not experienced in a long time with people who are different from me. I see patients from all walks of life during my work as a psychiatrist. Ardent Trump supporters, orthodox Muslims, and everyone in between. Our profession teaches us to deal with countertransference. I was taught in residency that if I could find just one quality that I liked about a patient, I would be able to work with that individual. The patients sitting across from me are more than their religion or political beliefs. These are persons with relationships, ambitions, dreams, and resentments, just like anyone else. Dr. Ahmed is a Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry, University of MN, F282/2A West Building, 2450 Riverside Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55454. E-mail: [email protected].