The other day I wrote about Sadiq Khan, the new Mayor of London. He fascinates me because at a time when his Labour Party is overtly hostile to both Jews and Israel, the Pakistani born Muslim is engaging Jews and is contemplating a trip to Israel.
Khan would also like to visit this country and plans to do so before November 8th in the event Donald Trump is elected President. “If Donald Trump becomes the President, I’ll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith,” Khan told Time.
When Trump was asked about this by The New York Times, he indicated he would welcome Khan stating, “There will always be exceptions.”
However, Khan is having none of it. Khan told Buzzfeed, “This isn’t just about me. It’s about my friends, my family, and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.”
Khan has a point. If Trump says there will be always be exceptions to his Muslim travel ban then he needs to spell them out. I would imagine though that such exceptions would likely include diplomatic personnel, elected officials such as Khan and Naheed Nenshi, the Mayor of Calgary, Alberta as well as Nobel Laureates like Muhammad Yunus and Malala Yousafzai or a businessman like Mohamed Al-Fayed. In other words, those Muslims who have some combination of money, power and fame would be exempt while your average, ordinary, hard-working Muslim and his family would be given the shaft.
All of which demonstrates how arbitrary Trump’s Muslim immigration and travel ban proposal is. Its very arbitrariness makes Trump’s proposal immoral in principle and unworkable in practice.
