Lawmakers should listen to Muslim community

Every day as I’ve read the news and tried to get some rest, my heart has been filled with sorrow, my mind with anguish, and my soul aching for relief. But I remind myself to be hopeful. I keep repeating Langston Hughes’ poem to myself: “I, too, am America.”

While the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order on refugees, I’m still waiting to hear my U.S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, respond to the president’s initiative in a way that shows they value the views of Muslim Texans and Muslim Americans who look like me and pray like me. This executive order and other anti-Muslim immigration proposals, which President Trump has set forth and Cornyn and Cruz have defended, do not represent our great American melting pot. These events have triggered me to express my personal views.

Recently, I arrived in Sri Lanka as a State Department-funded Fulbright Research Scholar to look at best approaches for peace-building and conflict resolution after a bloody, multi-decade civil war here. More important, I came to serve as a cultural ambassador for the United States and to reinforce the bonds of friendship and mutual understanding between our nations.

Those around me are also appalled by the decisions of U.S. elected officials who allow fear-based, ill-informed immigration and national security priorities to outweigh the guiding principles that our nation long has espoused. While I work to further instill the principles of tolerance and acceptance here, my country is breeding hatred, and my senators have not entirely condemned it.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” and the response of the legislative leadership signals complicity in the oppression of Muslim Americans and Muslims worldwide. Respecting religious diversity is a bedrock value. It is at stake today. The Muslim ban does not make us safer; it exacerbates tensions and weakens our national security objectives.

These policies have attempted to normalize bigotry through hateful legal actions aimed at making our culturally tolerant nation shift toward intolerance. I know, as do my senators, that Texas is better than that. The United States — founded on the ideal that all people should be treated with respect and dignity — is better than that.

I am a Truman Scholar with a deep, abiding passion for public service and faith in our democratic system. “We the people” expect our senators to hear us and be a voice for our genuine concerns. They’ve dismissed mainstream media, but they must not dismiss me; they must not dismiss the rest of their Texas constituents. We are hurt by their readiness to neglect us and be complacent. History will remember this.

Immigrants are part of America’s success because they’ve imagined new possibilities and worked tirelessly to build the United States into the country it is today. Every immigrant has a story not only filled with trials and tribulations but also triumphs.

My own parents came to Texas nearly 30 years ago, after fleeing a childhood of war, conflict and civil unrest in India and Pakistan. My grandparents, who instilled in me a love of service, were refugees from Bangladesh and Burma and arrived in the U.S. more than 20 years ago. Despite having to overcome economic and language barriers, they believed in the American promise and persisted until their resilience paid off. Over the past three decades, my parents have employed several hard-working American citizens of all shades and creeds. They’ve lifted others up, provided economic opportunities, supported their educational endeavors, attended their weddings and become beacons of hope. Because of their sacrifices, my brother and I are the first in our family to attend American universities. Their experience in the U.S. encouraged me to do all I could to make our country a more perfect union.

Immigrants and refugees like the ones who plan to come to our cities now share similar struggles and aspirations. They are not here to harm us; they come to make America their home.

I urge my senators to reflect on the gravity of their words and the weight of their vote when they use their voice to represent all Texans. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reminded us that there is no fine print in the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Those who seek refuge deserve to be welcomed. That has always been our motto — E Pluribus Unum.