Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has pledged to end President Donald Trump’s highly controversial travel ban affecting mainly Muslim-majority countries on day one of his presidency during an online summit yesterday.
The Muslim community was the first to feel Trump’s “assault” with his “vile Muslim ban”, said Biden during his address at Emgage Action, the largest Muslim American PAC (political action committee).
In a speech that blamed the Trump administration for “an unconscionable rise in Islamophobia”, Biden said that “the Muslim community, Latino community and black community, native Americans, had endured four years of “constant insult”.”
Biden reiterated his pledge to roll back Trump’s Muslim travel ban on “day one”.
Concluding his remarks, Biden promised to undo the damage caused by Trump. “He’s making a mockery of what we stand for,” said Biden of his Republican opponent. “We can do something about it. I’m here today to ask you to join me in the fight to rip this poison from the government root and stem, or as the famous case said, root and branch.”
Commenting on the significance of the address, Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action,
Said: “Joe Biden’s presence serves not only to galvanise Muslim Americans to cast their ballots, but to usher in an era of engaging with Muslim American communities under a Biden administration.”
“We anticipate that a Biden administration would provide Muslim American communities platforms to speak on issues affecting us, represent us within the administration and in policymaking discourses,” added Alzayat.
Billed as the “Million Muslim Votes Summit”, the virtual event saw several prominent Muslim American elected officials endorsing Biden for president in a letter. “Our number one goal is to remove Donald Trump from office and to replace him with someone who can begin to heal our nation,” the letter said.
“A Biden administration will move the nation forward on many of the issues we care about,” the latter continued, citing racial justice, affordable healthcare, climate change and immigration.