The issue of Muslim immigration is one of the most discussed topics in the American society and in the wake of numerous tragic events in Europe, Middle East and now in the USA. Pew Research Center estimates that 3.3 million Muslims live in the USA. They make up approximately 1% of the total U.S. population, but by 2050 the American Muslim population will equal to more than 8 million people (Mohamed). One of the reasons of such growth is the increase in the number of immigrants from Muslim countries. Nowadays, 10% of legal immigrants are Muslim people (Mohamed). Without a doubt, freedom of religion in the USA is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but there are a large number of people, including many politicians, that are afraid of an increased threat of terrorism that may be the outcome of popularization of Islamic extremism movement in the world and in the USA. Now Americans rate Muslims coolly in comparison with other religious groups that include Mormons, Catholics, evangelical Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists (Lipka).
What do Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton think about Muslims and their immigration to the USA? In general, Republicans are more negative towards Muslims than Democrats. They think that Muslims are fanatical and violent and therefore they worry about the possible rise of Islamic extremism (Lipka). However, at Trump’s web-site there is no information about Muslims and it looks like he would like to implement the immigration reform only for the purpose of better control of migration of Mexican people into the USA. However, in mass media there are many controversial statements made by Trump that show that he is against immigration of Muslim people. For example, on June 13th, 2016 after the Florida attack that killed 49 people, Donald Trump said: “The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family (they are from Afghanistan) to come here” (Cited in Reinhard & Epstein). In December 2015 he offered the following idea after the terrorist attacks in Paris: “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on” (cited in Berman). In turn, Hillary Clinton, just as the majority of Democrats, does not think that it would be fair to ban Muslims from entering the USA. She supports implementation of the new immigration reform, but she does not separate immigrants by race or religion. On November 19, 2015 she wrote: “Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism” (Clinton). Concerning the issue of banning people from entering the USA because of their religion, she thinks “it's un-American” and this solution does not correspond to the American values (Clinton).
Personally, I think that both politicians are trying to profiteer from talking about the problem of Muslim immigration and to reach out for more voters. At official web-sites of both candidates, one will not find any information about Muslims, but in the media there are plenty of articles and videos in which Clinton and Trump argue about Muslims in the USA. In my opinion, this is not good for the American society. There is a possibility that people will become intolerant and misguided because of the political games that we can observe now. Nevertheless, I support Clinton’s views about Muslim immigration and providing equal opportunities for everyone. Her approach does not polarize the society and provides possibilities for better reach-out to the Muslim people. On the contrary, Trump’s views may lead to increased instability and upsurge in violence in the USA and overseas.
Works Cited
Berman, Russel. Donald Trump's Call to Ban Muslim Immigrants. The Atlantic. 7 December
2015. Web. 14 June 2016
Clinton, Hillary. “Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant
people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism”. 19 November 2015. 7:57 AM.
Tweet.
Lipka, Michael. Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world. Pew
Research Center. 7 December 2015. Web. 14 June 2016
Mohamed, Besheer. A new estimate of the U.S. Muslim population. Pew Research Center. 6
Reinhard, Beth, Epstein, Reid. Donald Trump Goes On Offense, Blaming President. Wall Street
Hillary Clinton on Immigration. OntheIssues.org. n.d. Web. 14 June 2016
