Category: Americas, Featured, Highlights, World Affairs Topics: American Muslims, Government And Politics, Islamophobia, Us Elections 2024
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I’m a Muslim, Republican, Naturalized Citizen. Stop Demonizing Immigrants.
America Election Politics (photo: iStock by Getty Images).
The Trump and Harris campaigns should heed business leaders who argue that immigrants have made invaluable contributions to American society through their hard work.
“We are a nation of immigrants.”
Americans have been proudly proclaiming those words to the rest of the world from the political activist Thomas Paine more than 200 years ago to a host of our leaders in business, politics and the arts today. While the stories of Native Americans and Black Americans are different, the vast majority of Americans today do, indeed, spring from immigrant roots.
The memories of my arrival in America in 1970 will stay with me forever. On a late August morning, as my flight began its descent to Kennedy Airport under a clear blue sky, my eyes were searching for that welcoming figure: the Statue of Liberty that stands for freedom and democracy.
At her feet are often-unnoticed broken chains — shattered links to me serve as a powerful reminder of oppression and painful pasts that many immigrants flee, bringing their hopes and dreams of freedom and opportunities in the United States.
I took the oath of U.S. citizenship on the Fourth of July
On that first day, I did not fully grasp the break I was making with the land of my birth and my past. Now I can clearly see how my perspectives, character and vocation all were transformed by my new homeland. Even my faith experienced a rebirth and transformation.
When it was time, I took the oath of U.S. citizenship in a public ceremony on a Fourth of July. I met my wife in graduate school, we started a business upon graduation, raised children, and were able to give back to our community.
As an immigrant generation, we tend to share these values: a desire for higher education, the pursuit of professional careers and opportunities to set up our own businesses — so we can contribute in helpful ways to our new homeland.
As a naturalized citizen, I'm saddened by the demonization of immigrants
As a naturalized citizen, like many Americans, I contributed to community institutions. As a successful businessman, I had even more opportunities to serve during the booming era of the 1980s and 1990s. I became active in the Republican Party, was appointed by the governor to Michigan’s Community Service Commission, and I helped to build a new suburban congregation — in our case, a mosque. Mine is one among millions of immigrant stories.
Today, I’m deeply saddened by the demonization of immigrants, used as a political football in a hyperpartisan political climate.
CEOs of major U.S. corporations in the Business Roundtable urge Congress to adopt a bipartisan solution to address undocumented immigrants and their families under temporary relief.
I was fortunate to receive a green card, but the Business Roundtable highlights that legal immigration channels haven’t kept pace with the U.S. economy, quoting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, many under temporary relief from removal.
Trump, Harris campaigns should listen to business leaders
The Trump and Harris campaigns should heed business leaders who argue that immigrants have made invaluable contributions to American society through their hard work.
The talk of a “Muslim ban” concerns me. Islamophobic and antisemitic hate is on the rise, driven by a tragic conflict in the Holy Land — a land that’s a symbol of unity among the Abrahamic faiths. Today it’s a source of indiscriminate violence, where land and religion are used to foster separation between people who share the same historical roots and a common ancestor, Abraham.
Our Founding Fathers enshrined in the U.S Constitution both the freedom to believe according to one’s conscience, as well as freedom from the government imposing religion upon its people, a very essence of a democracy. I believe these principles are divinely inspired.
As an Indian-American Muslim, I found that religious liberty is woven into the very fabric of our nation — a nation embracing diverse religious beliefs and of no religious belief, inspiring me to build interfaith relations, bringing together Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. Immigrant experiences contribute to this nation in countless ways.
I’m grateful for our Bill of Rights. Despite divisions, we live in a secular democracy as caring neighbors with no fear of laws promoting segregation based on one’s ethnicity, race, origin or faith.
I want people to understand the American Dream my family and I encountered. Learning about each other beyond the vicious stereotypes I found to be a solution.
Victor Ghalib Begg is a Muslim community activist and interfaith leader who lives in Fort Pierce. His latest book is “Our Muslim Neighbors — Achieving the American Dream; An Immigrant’s Memoir.”
( Source: TC Palm, USA Today Network )
Category: Americas, Featured, Highlights, World Affairs
Topics: American Muslims, Government And Politics, Islamophobia, Us Elections 2024
Topics: American Muslims, Government And Politics, Islamophobia, Us Elections 2024
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