- Opinion
- 03 Feb 17
After recently avoiding the spotlight, following her split from Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie reappears in the media to raise a voice against Trump’s recent refugee ban.
Jolie is not the first Hollywood star speaking up against Trump’s politics: At protests, through social media or on award ceremonies several celebrities used the extensive public attention to plead for acceptance and love. Angelina Jolie, meanwhile, published an article on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times yesterday in which she sharply criticised the immigration ban.
In the article Jolie states that Trump’s executive order, which denials the entry of citizens from seven Muslim majority countries for the next three months, is “lighting a fuse that will burn across continents, inviting the very instability we seek to protect ourselves against.”
“If we send a message that it is acceptable to close the door refugees, or to discriminate among them on the basis of religion, we are playing with the fire.”
She wants to raise awareness of the fact that refugees are “far from being terrorists”, but often are “the victims of terrorism themselves.”
Jolie herself is known for being involved in humanitarian help and the fight for children’s rights as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which makes the refugee ban a matter of special importance for her. Explaining that the fugitive who come to the USA, searching for shelter, are the ones “most in need of protection” and the Americans can be sure that “they deserve the safety, shelter and fresh start” that a country like America can offer.
As a mother of six children who were born in foreign countries, but now are “proud American citizens”, she doesn’t want refugee children to be turned down; instead they need to “always have a chance” to “qualify for asylum.”
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Even more, she warns Americans not to create “second-class refugees.” It was widely criticised that the travel ban wouldn’t make America more safe but would give the terrorist groups more material for their anti-western propaganda, which Jolie supports in her article.
“Implying Muslims are less worthy of protection, we fuel extremism abroad, and at home we undermine the ideal of diversity.”
“If we divide people beyond our borders, we divide ourselves.”
She quotes the former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as she says "shutting our door to refugees or discriminating among them is not our way, and does not make us safer."
Trump’s order to ban the immigration from those seven countries lately caused strong criticism from several politicians and was followed by protests all around America to support diversity and piece.