Germany’s president has urged Europe to take a clear stance against Trump’s entry ban for citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. He said the order was “incompatible” with the European values of human dignity. Reports Deutsche Welle.
Europe needs to take a clear stance on US President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting nationals from Muslim-majority countries, German President Joachim Gauck said on Saturday.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order that barred passport-holders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days. The order also indefinitely suspended the US refugee program for Syrians, citing national security concerns.
The order sent shockwaves around the world, with tens of thousands of previously approved visas invalidated due to the ban. A US federal judge temporarily suspended the order on Friday, but the White House has said it will work to reinstate the ban.
“We should speak out very clearly on this,” Gauck said in an interview published Saturday in five European daily newspapers.
“The imposed entry ban implies that people of Muslim faith and people with a certain origin are dangerous,” Gauck said. “It is incompatible with our concepts of human dignity, equality and religious freedom.”
He added that these were once values that Europeans shared with the Americans – values that the United States once upheld “during the darkest time in Europe’s history” and returned to the continent.