Apparently stung by the international condemnation of President trump’s Executive Order banning refugees from Syria and putting a 90-day hold on refugees and all travelers (except diplomats) from 6 other predominantly Muslim countries, the White House line today is that it isn’t a ban, no one could possibly think it was a ban.
Trump and Spicer comments
The reason reporters kept pressing White House Press Secretary and spokesperson Sean Spicer about the word ban was simply that both Sean and President Trump referred to the Presidential action as a ban just one day earlier.
When, during this afternoon’s press briefing at the White House, several reporters pointedly ask Sean Spicer why they shouldn’t refer to the travel [blockage, stoppage, taboo, intermission, pause, or vetting] as a ban when President Trump used that word on Monday to describe the results of his Executive Order, Mr Spicer told the press briefing audience that “the President was just using the media word.”
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
Spicer told reporters, "Trump has “made it very clear this is not a Muslim ban, it’s not a travel ban, it’s a vetting system to keep America safe.
That’s it, plain and simple.” That continues the Trump-declared “war” on the media which he announced a week earlier in front of the CIA memorial and the active pursuit of alternative-facts.
Why should administration which so vehemently condemned the politically correct speech of the liberal press and politicians be so incensed over the media's use of the word ban?
is difficult to explain unless they are just trying to walk back the terrible impression they have made by so blatantly banning a group of Muslims from entering the US.
Is it a Muslim ban?
The outright ban on all Syrian citizens along with the 90-day pause in granting visas to those of the other 6 countries, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen is, according to President Trump, merely a way to provide time to institute more strict vetting of the applicants to prevent any terrorist attacks in the US.
In the past 50 years no US resident has been killed by anyone from those countries.
The Executive Order also give precedence and expedited processing to those from minority religions in those countries.
Just for example, The CIA says between 90 and 95% of Iranians are Shia Muslims and another 5-10% are either Sunni or Sufi Muslims. The largest non-Muslim religious sect in Iran are Bahá'í, most of whom aren’t permitted to leave the country. That leaves about 1.2% of the population divided among Christians, Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, and Jews.
The numbers are similar for the other countries on the excluded list, but a quick look at the numbers shows why favoring the non-Muslims effectively creates a total ban on Muslim refugees without actually having to use the words "Muslim ban" because technically it isn't a ban on Muslims, it is simply filling all the open refugee spots with non-Muslims which coincidentally means no Muslims can enter the US as refugees.
President Trump has cut the number of refugees the US will accept from 100,000 to just 50,000. the Pew Research foundation says the US admitted 37,521 Christian refugees in 2016 and a similar number of Muslim refugees but adding just 12,500 non-Muslim refugees would fill the entire quota
