Thursday, April 18News For London

Londoners react to Trump’s ban

by Dee May Tan, Minghao Gao, Mohammed Helmy, Arifa Khan

The decision to ban the entry of citizens from seven Islamic-majority nations into the US by President Donald Trump has caused anger within PM Theresa May’s party.

Although Ms May was the first foreign premier to secure a visit to the White House, the PM was criticised for failing to condemn the ban during her meeting with Trump.

The Independent had also highlighted the insignificance of Ms May’s visit who failed to make frontpage headlines in the US. The Prime Minister had recently returned from a two-day visit to the US.

Iraqi-born Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi was vocal about the decision:

Over the weekend Trump issued an executive order that effectively banned the entry of seven Islamic nations into the US for 90 days. The countries include Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The executive order also banned the entry of refugees into the US for 120 days.

Westminster World reporters went down to Regent Street to find out what Londoners thought of the ban and to what extent were they informed on the executive order.

“This will increase hate crime – it will not get any better,” said Sally Hegab, a 32-year-old, British-Muslim. “I think a lot people will be upset because it is a kind of discrimination — painting the whole race with the same brush, which is very unfair to Muslims in general,” she added.

Another Londoner, Sam Nickles, 39, called the ban “outrageous” and agrees that the ban is indeed a form of racism.

While the ban has been pitched as not of racist nature, but as a fight against terrorism, it has already caused an uproar with protests taking place across major airports in the US.

Interestingly, MP Zahawi told ITV this afternoon that he is in favour of Trump’s visit to the UK despite the controversy. Of course, it didn’t take long for memes and other witty responses to follow shortly after MP Zahawi’s Tweet.