Texas Imam: Trump’s Refugee Ban Promotes ‘Security for the Country’

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An imam with the Victoria Islamic Center is defending President Donald Trump’s executive order to halt refugee resettlement, saying it is about “security for the country.”

In an interview with the International Business Times, Shaid Hashmi said Trump’s recent order to halt refugees entering the country for at least 120 days was about national security, not hate towards Muslims.

“The president has chosen to restrict certain countries, he is our president,” Hashmi said. “I respect his decision, unless if it comes to the point where it will hurt innocent people, then we won’t support that.”

Hashmi said Muslims, though, should not be stereotyped as being terrorists, saying Muslims who do commit terrorist attacks “are not following their true fate.”

Hashmi’s Victoria Islamic Center recently caught fire and burned to the ground, sparking the mainstream media to immediately jump to conclusions and blame the incident on Trump supporters.

The Islamic leader said there’s no evidence in the mosque fire yet and demanded it stop being called a “hate crime.”

“It could perhaps be an electrical problem from inside,” Hashmi said. “We don’t know the situation right now … don’t know if it was set intentionally or if it was an accident.”

USA Today used the mosque fire to attack Trump, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) used the incident to spread fear about the alleged “growing anti-Muslim bigotry.”

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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