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Trump said the 1st amendment -which stands for freedom of belief and speech- makes clear “that our rights do not come from our government; they come from God”. He regretted “80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned”.

The percentage he cites comes from a report from the Pew Research Center in 2016, where this independent think tank also mentions Muslims being targeted in the United States and directly links this to the current present president of the country:

“In the United States, Muslims were the targets of derogatory rhetoric and proposed discrimination. In July, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump criticized the parents of a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq (…). Later in the year, President-elect Trump appeared to stand by plans for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States and a proposed requirement that U.S. Muslims register in a database”, the report summary reads.

>>> You may also read: Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim<<<

But Donald Trump’s speech on religious freedom this Monday at the UN ignored his rethoric and measures against Muslims: “As we speak, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Yazidis and many other people of faith are being jailed, sanctioned, tortured and even murdered, often at the hands of their own government, simply for expressing their deeply held religious beliefs. So hard to believe”.

He called upon all the countries of the world “to end religious persecution”, “repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”. The US president assured: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities and always has been”.

“Repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”

What he did not mention was the “temporary ban” on Muslims he promised to implement if he became president and which finally has gotten a version of it for some Muslim majority countries plus Venezuela and North Korea after the judges declared his first travel ban illegal.

He recalled recent “evil attacks” against worshippers in sinagogues in the US, in mosques in New Zealand and churches in Sri Lanka and urged every nation “to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities”. “There cannot be greater crime than that”, he said.

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Trump announced a coalition of US businesses for the protection of “all faiths” in the workplace, although he did not go into detail. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs”, he pointed out before saying to the victims of religious persecution that the US “will always stay at your side”.

Last July Donald Trump held a short meeting with people who survived religious persecution worldwide. Sitting on his chair at the Oval Office and surrounded by them, he talked with them in front of the cameras (watch White House video).

The victims were grateful for the opportunity to be listened, like Farid Ahmed, a victim of the Christchurch attacks against Muslims who became known after publicly forgiving the terrorist. But there were also awkward moments during the meeting with Trump, such as when a Rohingya refugee asked him for solutions to go back home after being forced to flee to Bangladesh together with another 740,000 Muslims since 2017. “Where is that exactly?”, Trump asked. “Burma”, an official had to clarify (meaning the state nowadays known as Myanmar). Or like when he asked Nobel Peace Prize Nadia Murad why she obtained the award. She is a Yazidi woman survivor of ISIS genocide against this religious community who brought up attention worldwide about these mass killings, mainly in Iraq.

The law known as “Muslim ban” or “Travel ban” finally included countries which are not Muslim majority nations: North Korea and Venezuela. But it kept Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Iran among those with restrictions, including no travel at all for Syrians and North Korea people. Iraq and Sudan, which where among the countries in the first executive order, where finally dropped.

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La entrada Trump in the UN: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

“When people ask me who my biggest opponent is, I don’t give a name— I tell them the truth— it’s Islamophobia, Racism, Patriarchy, Xenophobia and Misogyny. We can’t let them win,” said Ilhan Omar at the Muslim American Society convention.

“As I watch what is happening in this country and with this administration, I can’t believe the lack of panic”, she confessed to Elle magazine. This 34 year-old public servant arrived at the States when she was 12, after having spent four years in a Kenian refugee camp. She is not only one of the two first Muslim women to arrive in Congress but also the first Somali-American to do so, plus the first one wearing a hijab. She made it after just two years as legislator in Minneapolis.

The youth has apparently been key to her success. Almost half of her constituents are aged under 24, she explained in an interview on MSNBC. During the campaign she met with them to listen to their aspirations and worries, and went from door to door to ask for their support until the last moment.

“When people ask me who my biggest opponent is, I don’t give a name— I tell them the truth— it’s Islamophobia, Racism, Patriarchy, Xenophobia and Misogyny. We can’t let them win”

— Ilhan Omar, Congress Rep. for Minnesota’s 5th District

Rashida Tlaib is a 42 year-old lawyer who defines herself as a “social worker at heart”. She does indeed give a name to fight: Donald Trump. She focuses her present fight on him and his message. Once, when the president of the United States, went to an event in Detroit, she stood up and screamed asking him: “Have you ever red the US Constitution? You need to read the US Constitution!”

“He can ban us from coming into the country, but he can’t ban us from getting elected to U.S. Congress”, she said to Marie- Claire magazine during the campaign.

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In a campaign video she was wearing a T-shirt which read “Mums against Trump” and she explained that was “the spirit of why we are doing this”.

“Me being elected is a big message to the whole country: that we are part of the government, we are part of the country and that we wanna give back, just like anyone else”, Tlaib told in an interview on CBS.

It is a specially relevant message the one Tlaib and Omar are sending with their election, taking into account that immigration has been the key issue of Trump’s campaign with Republican candidates. Even its beloved Fox News channel did not was to broadcast a spot where he criminalized the hundreds of people crossing Central America fleeing from violence and poverty in their countries (mainly Honduras) with the hope to get to the US.

Tlaib’s victory is even more significant, due to her Palestinian origin and given that president Trump just recently moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That way he broke with decades of global diplomacy which had avoided to take part in the dispute about the capital city of Palestinians and Israelis.

“Me being elected is a big message to the whole country: that we are part of the government, we are part of the country and that we wanna give back, just like anyone else”

— Rashida Tlaib, Congress Rep. for Michigan’s 13th District

Both Tlaib and Omar belong are Democrats and have social-progressive views. They advocate for rights like public education, health care for everybody, better environment policies or the defence of minorities, such as LBGT or immigrants.

Omar will replace Keith Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress and who is currently the Democrat candidate for attorney general. Tlaib will sit on Democrat Rep. John Conyers, who resigned after sexual-harrassment allegations. Her victory was a given, as no Republican candidate presented himself in her district.

These Midterm Elections of November 6th have marked a record of Muslim candidates in response to the anti-Muslim policy and discourse of Donald Trump Associated Press reported. This time there were almost 100 Muslim candidates, as opposed to 2016, when there were about a dozen.

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La entrada Meet the two first Muslim women elected to Congress in the US: Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib se publicó primero en Salam Plan.