The “Muslim ban” issued by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is “an offence on our shared Muslim and Christian values and a rejection of our shared humanity. That is a discriminatory order and threatens relations between Christians and Muslims”: it has been stated today, in a joint release, by the Jesuit fathers of the Jesuit Refugee Service (Jrs) and by the Italian Islamic community Coreis. “We understand that national governments feel duty-bound to protect their citizens from danger and to check their borders for national security – father Thomas H. Smolich, international director of Jrs, and imam Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, president of Coreis, state -. But there are ethical issues that go beyond the national boundaries, such as protecting the members of the human family in situations of serious danger. In a world that is hurt by violence and injustice, by terror and tyranny, every day, our Muslim and Christian traditions call us to be brave and generous, and not to give in to fear and selfishness”. The two organisations confirm they sympathise “with all refugees, regardless of their faith”: “Any attempt at rejecting refugees because of their religion goes against the Christian and Muslim values that are human dignity, care for the weaker ones, and religious freedom”.

“We are deeply worried – they go on – about the permanent suspension of the Syrian refugee programme now that 5 million Syrians have had to escape violence in their country”. Jrs and Coreis are also worried about the consequences of the order, which will give priority to refugees persecuted in the countries where they are a religious minority: “Since the 7 countries that are banned from going to the USA for the next three months all have a Muslim majority – they explain – the executive order clearly shows the intention to push Muslim refugees down to the bottom of the list. A de facto ban cannot but inflame sectarian resentment, radicalism and religious tensions”. Trump’s executive order, they point out, “might destabilise the protection of refugees all over the world, by reducing the number of places where they could be rehomed and by ending access to asylum applications”. Therefore, they call “all governments to challenge the USA ban” and improve, instead, “the protection of refugees in their countries”. They also ask governments “willing to implement isolationist policies to tackle, instead, the structural causes of forced migration and share the responsibility for protecting refugees in a well-balanced way”.