The Legality of Religious Databasing

Devyn Alt

Composition 2

Donald Trump and the Legality of Religious Databasing

âCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.â This is an excerpt from the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Having the freedom of religion, and the other four freedoms specifically addressed in the First Amendment, have always been something Americans have prided themselves on. For this reason, presidential candidates supporting religious databasing; keeping a record of all the Muslims in America after the recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremist groups, is unconstitutional.
The controversy over religious databasing began last month in Newton, Iowa, when an NBC News reporter asked campaigners whether or not they would implement a database system tracking Muslims in the United States (Hillyard 2). Donald Trump was quick to answer, saying âI would certainly implement that. Absolutelyââ¦âThere should be a lot of systems, beyond databases. We should have a lot of systems.â Furthermore, when asked whether Muslims would be hypothetically legally obligated to register into the database, he said âThey have to be â they have to be.â (Hillyard 4). Such a statement is belittling to all of the non-terrorist Muslim-Americans.
Jeb Bush countered Trumpâs offensive sentiments regarding the Muslim population by saying âYou talk about internment, you talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people. Thatâs just wrong. I donât care about campaigns. Itâs not a question of toughness. Itâs to manipulate peopleâs angst and their fears. Thatâs not strength, thatâs weaknessâ (Hillyard 6). Besides the controversy between a religious database and the Constitution, several outsiders have drawn comparisons to history. Ibrahim Hooper, the national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke with NBC News on the same topic and said, âWhat else can you compare this to except prewar Nazi Germany? Thereâs no other comparison, and [Trump] seems to think thatâs perfectly OK.â (Hillyard 9). Rabbi Jack Moline, the executive director of the nonprofit Interfaith Alliance, drew the same comparison, saying, âMy father was in World War II, and he fought to preserve America against what the Nazis were doingâ¦This is exactly why there is an America, to not be like that.â (Hillyard 10-12). Trump, in a later interview, didnât refute the idea of requiring all Muslims to carry special identification cards, noting their religion (Trump Rivals Decry His Call for Registering US Muslims 23). This draws yet another uncanny parallel to prewar Nazi Germany, where Jews were forced to wear stars of David on their clothing, denoting their religion.
While the Constitution does not expressly address religious databasing, since such large-scale databasing would have been difficult or impossible at the time it was written, several legal experts and civil liberties experts have already deemed the hypothetical act âunconstitutionalâ (Trump Rivals Decry His Call for Registering US Muslims 1). However, in a later press conference, Trump did go so far as to blatantly disregarde the First Amendment, saying, âclosing certain mosques [would be] a way to contain the terror threat in the U.S.â (Trump Rivals Decry His Call for Registering US Muslims 7). He went on to say, âNobody wants to say this, and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions, [but] thereâs absolutely no choice. Some really bad things are happening, and they are happening fast.â (Cassidy 3).
Other presidential candidates have expressed more pragmatic approaches regarding the apparent terror threat looming over the U.S. from the middle east. When Ben Carson was asked how he felt about a religious database, he responded, saying there should be a database on âevery foreigner who comes into this country,â but was opposed to a database based on religion. He elaborated, saying âOne of the hallmarks of America is that we treat everybody the same. If weâre just going to pick out a particular group of people based on their religion, based on their race, based on some other thing, thatâs setting a pretty dangerous precedent (Trump Rivals Decry His Call for Registering US Muslims 21-22).
While the threat of terror coming from Islamic extremist groups like ISIS should not be taken lightly, stereotyping an entire demographic based on their religion (not to mention a religion estimated to account for anywhere from two to seven million members of the American population (Muslims in America â A Statistical Portrait 3)), is unconstitutional. Perhaps even more alarming, though, is the willingness of certain politicians to so quickly support the cause that belittles so many non-terrorist Muslim-American citizens.

Works Cited

Cassidy, John. "Donald Trump and America's Muslims." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 19          Nov. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Hillyard, Vaughn. "Trump's Plan for Muslim Database Draws Nazi Comparison." NBC News.          NBC, 19 Nov. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
"Muslims in America - A Statistical Portrait." Embassy of the United States; Baghdad, Iraq. U.S.          Department of State, 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
"Trump Rivals Decry His Call for Registering U.S. Muslims."Chicagotribune.com. Chicago          Tribune, 20 Nov. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.