Friday the prominent actor and stand up comedian Aziz Ansari penned an editorial for the New York Times titled Why Trump Makes Me Scared For My Family. He tweeted, “Trump wants to ban Muslim immigrants like my parents. I wrote a piece for @NYTimes telling him to go f*ck himself,” with a link to his article. I can’t say I’m surprised the NYT selected such a classy fellow to write for them.


      

      In the article Ansari claimed that, “Being Muslim American already carries a decent amount of baggage. In our culture, when people think ‘Muslim,’ the picture in their heads is not usually of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or the kid who left the boy band One Direction. It’s of a scary terrorist character from ‘Homeland’ or some monster from the news.” Speaking for myself, that’s false. I’d also argue that he’s dead wrong about American culture. If we were as inherently Islamophobic as he claims, the Muslims he mentioned never would’ve garnered such widespread fame and admiration in this country to begin with. 

      He went on to explain that a Muslim friend recently told him, “I’m really sick of having to explain that I’m not a terrorist every time the shooter is brown.” Well I’m really sick of having to explain that I’m not a racist or xenophobe. America is the most tolerant place on earth, so it’s a little annoying to have a privileged Hollywood millionaire acting like he’s some sort of victim.

  Aziz, if Trump’s rhetoric scares you that much I would suggest finding a good safe space. Maybe a left wing college campus would suffice, with plenty of trigger warnings to ensure that no one will offend you.

      Modern terrorism is mostly exclusive to Islam. I don’t know of any Jews, Christians, Hindus, Budhists or Yazidis strapping bombs to their chests or shooting up gay nightclubs in the name of their religion. Actually, no one has been victimized more by Muslim terrorists than peaceful Muslims, just ask the Kurds. Aziz Ansari and President Obama bury their heads in the sand like ostriches and pretend not to notice that Rome is burning. Aziz, if Trump’s rhetoric scares you that much I would suggest finding a good safe space. Maybe a left wing college campus would suffice, with plenty of trigger warnings to ensure that no one will offend you.

     I have to admit I’m a big fan of Aziz’s stand up comedy, his work on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and his Netflix  original series Master of None, which he co-created and starred in. He’s very funny and talented. If he wants to write garbage opinion columns for a declining leftist rag newspaper, that’s his prerogative. If I boycotted every musician or Hollywood liberal who said something I disagree with, I’d probably have to turn off the radio and never watch a movie again. 

     I’ll concede that Donald Trump has said and done some incredibly stupid things over the course of this Presidential campaign and throughout his life, which is why I will not be voting for him. I’m not usually one to defend the orange real estate tycoon, but his stance on Islamic Terrorism isn’t that bad. I believe his proposed ban on Muslim immigration is an impractical and unnecessary overreach, but it’s not necessarily racist. Plus I doubt Trump would actually carry out this idea because he keeps squirming and flip flopping on it, just like all of his other positions. I think it’s just something he did to attract far right wing voters during the GOP Primaries. 

    Regardless of the motivation behind Trump’s position, he touched on an important paradox: Immigration policies should be designed in the best interest of Americans, not immigrants. Civilized countries such as Germany are welcoming in hordes of destitute, illiterate savages; and in the process becoming more like the wretched hellholes the migrants and refugees escaped from. The United States is a nation of citizens not immigrants, or at least that’s how it used to be. 

    I’m a staunch supporter of the SECURE Act, legislation proposed by Rand Paul that failed in the Senate several months ago, which would’ve suspended immigration from 33 “high risk” Middle Eastern countries and significantly enhanced the screening process in general. This is a much more pragmatic approach, but still sufficiently addresses the problem. 

— American Exceptionalism 

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