So far, only President Donald’s Trump executive orders on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests have sparked protests and discussions about the impacts in Miami-Dade, where Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered the corrections department to start holding illegal immigrants for 48 hours.
But on Wednesday, the talk turns to the Muslim Ban.
That’s when the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board meets to hear from the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations and discuss the impact on local residents of the recent presidential executive order restricting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
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Even though a court has put a stay on the order to keep visitors from those countries out — an order that returned seven legal U.S. residents traveling back from those countries — the Muslim community is on edge because that could change again, and, furthermore, it indicates a federal administration that has put a target on their backs.
“This sends out a wave of fear and insecurity within a community that is already insecure and feels unsafe because of global terrorism and the lack of understanding on the part of the local community who cannot distinguish between local Muslims and global Muslims,” said Mohammad Shakir, a spokesman for the Coalition, known as COSMOS.
“We want to help people understand the difference between the global Muslim and the local American Muslims in our community,” said Shakir. “A lot of people suffer as a result of this hodgepodge, insensible act by our president.”
Part of the discussion Wednesday will be a call for the community relations board “to keep an eye on the events that take place,” said Shakir, who is apparently expecting some more Muslim backlash either from the government or from the community.
“We are remaining in contact with major support organizations like the ACLU and other groups that deal with civil rights. It’s a watch and see situation.”
The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at Masjid Miami Gardens, 4305 Northwest 183rd St. in Miami Gardens and it is open to the public.
Unfortunately, it looks like Commissioner Barbara Jordan — whose district includes the Muslim enclaves of Miami Gardens and Opa-Locka — won’t be unable to attend the board meeting because there is a Public Safety and Health Committee, on which she serves, meeting at 1:30 p.m.
Maybe Shakir should have made his presentation there?
Here’s another suggestion: Go to the commission meeting this Friday where the immigrant community is going to speak against another part of Donald Trump‘s “hodgepode and insensible” immigration policy and the county mayor’s knee-jerk reaction to his threats — which, by the way, doesn’t bode well for the Muslim community. Build an alliance with the immigrants.
After all, you both have targets on your backs.