Trump initially called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. He has modified his immigration stance from prohibiting Muslims to people “from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.” This is not ideal—remember how often we hear the media refer to Islamic terrorists as “Belgian Nationals” like Ahmad Dahmani and Abdelhamid Abaaoud, or “French Nationals” like Salah Abdeslam. [Paris attacks: Who were the attackers?, BBC, April 27, 2016]. Nonetheless, barring those from terrorist nations is simpler to implement—it’s easy for someone to lie about their religion—and as a practical matter would greatly restrict Muslim immigration.
Trump has not yet specified what countries he considers “compromised by terrorism.” But the U.S. State Department considers Pakistan a “Terrorist Safe Haven”—most famously harboring Osama Bin Laden. [Country Reports on Terrorism 2015]
Thus I will grant Khan Sr. that if Donald Trump were president, they would probably not have been able to immigrate to this country. I also have no doubt that their son—also an immigrant, born in the United Arab Emirates—was a patriotic and loyal American who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the country. Donald Trump said as much when he acknowledged: “Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe”. [Setting the Record Straight, July 30, 2016]
But there are an estimated 3.3 million Muslims in this country. The fact that one of them turned out to be a patriotic and honorable man does not mean we should import millions of them.
Our immigration policy needs to be based on protecting the interests of American citizens—not on exceptions. And all evidence shows that Captain Khan was an exception among Muslims, both in America and abroad.
The simple fact is that Muslim Americans are far less likely to serve and die in the military relative to their proportion of population. Muslims make up 1 per cent of the U.S. population, but only 0.27% of active or reserve duty military personnel and 14 of the 6,024—or 0.24%—of the Americans killed in the war on terror [Minuscule Number of Muslims Serve in US Military as Share of Population, Gateway Pundit, July 30, 2016].
Muslims residents are less likely to be US Citizens than the general population (81% v. 93%), but from the point of view of military service their age disparity more than counteracts this. Muslims are more than 1.6 times more likely to be in prime military age of 18-29 compared than the general population. [A Demographic Portrait of Muslim Americans, Pew Research Center, August 30, 2011]
In contrast, 83% of those killed in the Iraq War, and 85% of those killed in Afghanistan, were white, [American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, Congressional Research Service, January 2, 2015]
In fact, more American servicemembers have been killed by Muslim-American soldiers than the number of Muslim American soldiers killed in Iraq. Army Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 Americans during his shooting spree at Fort Hood. Sergeant Hasan Karim Akbar killed two fellow servicemen and injured nine after he threw four grenades into the tents of the 101st Airborne in Kuwait and then shot the survivors as they ran out .[Akbar Sentenced to Death for Grenade Attack, Associated Press, April 29, 2005]. Michelle Malkin has documented several other radical Muslim-American servicemen who attempted to kill American soldiers.
Furthermore, while Captain Khan may have fought Islamic terrorism, a disturbingly high percentage of Pakistanis support it. According to 2008 Pew poll, 25% of Pakistanis had a favorable view of Al-Qaeda and only 34% had an unfavorable view.
Al Qaeda's support has since dropped to 12%—still too high—but this has not been due to love of America. According to a 2012 Pew poll, 74% of Pakistani’s view America as an enemy, and 22% support the Islamic terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, while only 37% oppose it . [Pakistani Public Opinion Ever More Critical of U.S., Pew Research Center, June 17, 2012]
Of polls of countries with large Muslim populations, Pakistan has the least negative view of ISIS with only 28% opposing it (the majority are neutral.) [In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS, by Jacob Poushter, Pew Research Center, November 17, 2015]
Indeed many of Khan’s fellow Pakistanis supported the attacks that killed him. According to 2009 poll, 26% of Pakistanis supported attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, 22% had “mixed feelings” and only 32% opposed it. Only 55% disapprove of attacks on American civilians on U.S. soil [Public Opinion in the Islamic World on Terrorism, al Qaeda, and US Policies, World Public Opinion, February 25, 2009].
In the photo that every MSM outlet published, Khizr Khan held up a Constitution and accused Donald Trump of not reading it—in particular “the words 'liberty' and 'equal protection of law.”
But of course neither prevent the U.S. government from restricting immigration based on nationality or religion, as Byron York has pointed out. [Khizr Khan, Donald Trump, and the debate over Muslim immigration, Washington Examiner, July 30 2015.]
And in any case, these concepts are clearly alien to Pakistani Muslims, only 45% of whom believe that honor killings are never justified, and 82% of whom support stoning adulterers [The World's Muslims, Pew Research Center, April 30, 2013; Muslim Publics Divided on Hamas and Hezbollah, Pew Research Center, December 2, 2010].
If we didn’t let Pakistani Muslims into America, we would be deprived of Humayun Khan’s service to the country. But some other American citizen would have happily taken his place in the officer corps—which, although Democrats don’t seem to realize this, Americans out in Americaland actually compete to join—and in Iraq. At the same time, we wouldn’t have let Al Qaeda terrorists Majid Khan and Uzair Paracha or honor killers like Chaudhry Rashid into our country.
While he acknowledged Captain Khan’s sacrifice, Trump identified the real issue as
the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm. Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible.Neither Khizr Khan, Hillary Clinton, nor their hundreds of MSM cheerleaders have acknowledged that large percentages of Pakistanis support terrorism—much less offered any practical way of separating potential terrorists from potential loyal soldiers.
Until and unless they do, they are merely exploiting Humayun Khan’s death to feign outrage at Donald Trump for pointing out a grave security threat they have intentionally ignored.
Washington Watcher [email him] is an anonymous source Inside The Beltway.
