In this op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Zev Yaroslavsky, board member of Jews United for Democracy and Justice, have united to take a stand against the Travel Ban saying both “communities are well versed in the pain of discriminatory and exclusionary policies” and are thereby “fiercely committed to protecting, defending and upholding the American democratic ideals under threat by President Trump’s travel ban.”
Here are some snippets from the powerful op-ed:
“We call on the greatest of our country’s traditions: its openness and tolerance for newcomers, along with its commitment to justice for all. Muslims and Jews have been part of and benefited from those traditions. Setting the stage for this noble inclusivity was the treaty of peace and friendship entered into with Morocco in 1786, one of the first and longest-standing treaties that the fledgling United States signed. In more recent times, millions of Muslims have called America their homeland, including many who have served in and sacrificed on behalf of the armed service.”
“Muslims and Jews together are derived from the stock of Abraham. Drawing on our shared roots, we look on with trepidation at the risks facing our country. The Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of the travel ban will not just be a holding on an administrative matter, but a stress test of the integrity and resilience of America’s democratic institutions. Confronting the gravest internal threat to our democratic tradition in modern memory, today’s Supreme Court faces a stark choice between affirming the grand American ideals of tolerance and inclusion or uprooting and betraying them.”
