US Muslim ban shocks

In Somalia, people are reacting with dismay and warnings that countries could retaliate against the United States' new immigration and visa policies with restrictive policies of their own.“I am shocked beyond words. This will mean that my new husband will never be able to join me in the US,” said Fatima Ashkir, a Somali-American woman from Florida who came to Mogadishu to marry her Somali boyfriend.Others say they are not surprised at President Donald Trump's executive order imposing a three-month ban on refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia.“His intentions of hurting rather than to help were clear from the very beginning,” said Ahmed Abdullahi, a university student in Mogadishu. “But you have to know that this will have a serious effect on relations between Americans and the Muslim world. A tit-for-tat response by Muslim countries, in which Americans could be barred from entering countries affected, is likely to be seen.”In Egypt, Cairo airport officials say five US-bound Iraqi migrants from one family who have been prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport would return to Iraq.They said the five will spend Saturday night at Cairo airport and leave for Irbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, Sunday morning.They added that the sixth US-bound migrant, a Yemeni national, left the airport to return to Cairo, where he resides.The officials said Saturday's action at the airport was the first since President Donald Trump imposed a three-month ban on refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.The officials said the six migrants, escorted by officials from the UN refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts at JFK airport.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.In the meanwhile, a spokesperson for Czech President Milos Zeman on Saturday praised Donald Trump's anti-migrant steps, saying the new US president simply cared about the safety of Americans.“US President Trump protects his country...he's concerned with the safety of his citizens. Exactly what EU elites do not do,” said Zeman's spokesperson Jiri Ovcacek.In office for a week, Trump signed an order to boost the vetting of potential immigrants and refugees, seeking to keep “radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”The move has sparked criticism among rights groups as well as at the United Nations which called on the US to continue its long tradition of welcoming refugees.The pro-Russian Zeman, a 72-year-old veteran leftwinger and ex-Communist, who endorsed Trump before the election last year, has criticised immigration from Muslim countries.He once called the wave of refugees “an organised invasion” and said Muslims were “impossible to integrate.“The safety of Czech citizens is a priority. Now we have allies in the US,” said Ovcacek.Migration is a prominent political issue in the Czech Republic, despite refugees largely avoiding the ex-Communist EU and Nato member state of 10.5 million people, heading instead to wealthier countries in western Europe. – Additional reporting by News24NAMPA/AFP

US Muslim ban shocks

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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US Muslim ban shocks

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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