NEW YORK, Feb 2 (APP): Jenna Bush, a correspondent for NBC News and the daughter of former President George W. Bush, has come out against the executive order barring immigration, travel, and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries that was issued by President Trump last week.
“This is not the America I know,” she wrote Wednesday in a Twitter post that included an excerpt from a speech that her father delivered at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. six days after the 9/11 attacks.
Ms. Bush posted President Bush’s speech on Islam as a “reminder” to her followers “to teach acceptance and love to our kids for all races, all religions.”
Bush’s speech isolates incidents of Islamic terrorism from the religion of Islam and its value to the world. “Islam is peace,” he said. “These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”
The excerpt Ms. Bush shared ends with a particularly relevant quote: “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behaviour.”
Ms. Bush’s tweet comes amid mounting controversy over President Trump’s executive order that temporarily bans travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries –Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. The order, which has sparked protests at airports across the nation since it was signed Friday, also suspends all refugee admission for 120 days, and refugee admission from Syria is suspended indefinitely.
Members of Congress, Hollywood and the media have fiercely criticized the extreme vetting policy, with some describing it as a “Muslim ban,” a term the Trump administration has firmly rejected.
Trump pointed out Sunday that there are 40 other majority-Muslim countries that weren’t affected by the order and explained that former President Barack Obama imposed a similar pause on Iraqi refugees in 2011.
In the 2001 excerpt shared by Ms. Bush, ex-President Bush, a Republican like Trump, declared that Muslim-Americans shouldn’t be intimidated to practice their religion freely.
“I’ve been told that some fear to leave; some don’t want to go shopping for their families; some don’t want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they’re afraid they’ll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in America,” he said. “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behaviour.”