By a Muslim refugee, immigrant, or visitor, or made to look like that by someone else.
What Hillary Clinton Should Say about Islam and the “War on Terror”, by Sam Harris.
In response to terrorist atrocities of the sort that we witnessed in Paris, Nice, and Orlando, we need to honestly acknowledge that we are fighting not generic terrorism but a global jihadist insurgency.
The first line of defense against this evil is and always will be members of the Muslim community who refuse to put up with it.
We need to empower them in every way we can.
Only cooperation between Muslims and non-Muslims can solve these problems.
If you are concerned about terrorism, if you are concerned about homeland security, if you are concerned about not fighting unnecessary wars and winning necessary ones, if you are concerned about human rights globally, in November you must elect a president who can get people in a hundred countries to cooperate to solve an extraordinarily difficult and polarizing problem—the spread of Islamic extremism.
This is not a job that a president can do on Twitter.
I want to say a few words on the topics of immigration and the resettlement of refugees: The idea of keeping all Muslims out of the United States, which my opponent has been proposing for months, is both impractical and unwise.
It’s one of those simple ideas—like building a wall and deporting 11 million undocumented workers—that doesn’t survive even a moment’s scrutiny.
More important, if you think about this purely from the point of view of American security, you realize that we want Muslims in our society who are committed to our values.
Muslims like Captain Humayun Khan, who died protecting his fellow American soldiers from a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Or his father, Khizr Khan, who spoke so eloquently in defense of American values at the Democratic National Convention.
Muslims who share our values are, and always will be, the best defense against Islamists and jihadists who do not.
That’s one reason why the United States is faring so much better than Europe is.
We have done a much better job of integrating our Muslim community and honoring its religious life.
Muslims in America are disproportionately productive and prosperous members of our society.
They love this country—with good reason.
Very few of them have any sympathy for the ideology of our enemies.
We want secular, enlightened, liberal Muslims in America.
They are as much a part of the fabric of this society as anyone else. And given the challenges we now face, they are an indispensable part.
Despite the counsel of fear you hear from my opponent, security isn’t our only concern.
We also have an obligation to maintain our way of life and our core values, even in the face of threats.
One of our values is to help people in need.
And few people on earth are in greater need at this moment than those who are fleeing the cauldron of violence in Iraq and Syria—where, through no fault of their own, they have had to watch their societies be destroyed by sectarian hatred.
Women and girls by the tens of thousands have been raped, in a systematic campaign of sexual violence and slavery.
Parents have seen their children crucified.
The suffering of these people is unimaginable, and we should help them—whether they are Yazidi, or Christian, or Muslim.
But here is my pledge to you: No one will be brought into this country without proper screening.
No one will be brought in who seems unlikely to embrace the values of freedom and tolerance that we hold dear.
Is any screening process perfect?
Of course not.
But I can tell you that the only way to actually win the war on terror will be to empower the people who most need our help in the Muslim world.
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