Madeleine Albright on Muslim registry: I will register as a Muslim

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State, on Wednesday morning said she was prepared to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans should President Donald Trump create registries and add further immigration regulations on the group.

"I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian & found out later my family was Jewish. I stand ready to register as Muslim in #solidarity," Albright tweeted.

Albright's tweet echoes the sentiment of feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who at the Women's March on Washington Saturday said she too would register as a Muslim if such a registry were required.

"If you force Muslims to register, we will all register as Muslims,” Steinem said during a speech at the Women’s March on Washington, drawing raucous cheers.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316161-madeleine-albright-on-muslim-registry-i-will-register-as-a

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Just to be clear - even Trump has never call for a "registry of Muslims": this has referred to Muslim visitors, not citizens.

[ck4829]

1. Sign me up, and as for Trump said/never said. He is a liar.

If your worst fear about Trump is X, then start preparing for X.

[hells]

2. We should make a deplorable registry

[Pantagruel]

3. We should all pull a Spartacus

Every right thinking U.S. citizen should be ready to register as a Muslim, make a bad law unenforceable should Trump try it.

Same with sanctuary, build a database of citizens willing to shelter persecuted immigrants, get the cities off the hook. Provide every DACA registrant with a list of locals ready to help.

And when they criminalize abortion and maybe even contraception, more underground action will be required.

It's really our moral duty to RESIST!!!

This has been made necessary because some of us were less than enthusiastic about ensuring a Dem victory, let's remember this lesson.

[Yo_Mama]

6. Except there was never any intention to make citizens register - this was about foreigners.

So I don't know what you are talking about.

[mrmpa]

14. my niece and her husband..

Have let it be known that their home is open to anyone who wants sanctuary due to Trump's policies on Muslims and immigrants.

[TomVilmer]

4. Just to be unclear...

On ABC News’ This Week Nov. 22, host George Stephanopoulos asked Trump, "You did stir up a controversy with those comments over the database. Let's try to clear that up. Are you unequivocally now ruling out a database on all Muslims?"
"No, not at all," Trump responded. "I want a database for the refugees that -- if they come into the country. We have no idea who these people are. When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don't know if they're ISIS, we don't know if it's a Trojan horse. And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watchlists. We want to go with databases. And we have no choice."
No, he would not rule out a database on all Muslims. But for now, he wants a database for refugees.

[Yo_Mama]

5. Yeah, this is a bit odd, because he wants to restore the earlier program.

It was ended in 2011. The government doesn't have any authority to get citizens to register in some db on account of their religion. But in terms of tracking visitors from some areas, it does have the authority.

And it's not really tracking Muslims - it is about tracking visitors from some countries that have problematic histories with regard to violent terrorism.

Here is an earlier article that explains a bit about the program:
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/311535-obama-dismantles-controversial-program-once-used-to-track-mostly

The Obama administration said Thursday it will formally do away with a dormant travel registry program that tracked visitors from many Muslim-majority countries — a program some surrogates of President-elect Donald Trump have proposed reinstating.
...

The original NSEERS created under the George W. Bush administration required noncitizen visa holders from 25 countries to register when they entered the U.S. and check in regularly with immigration officials. All but one of the nations on the list were majority-Muslim.

The program registered more than 80,000 boys and men and placed more than 13,000 in removal proceedings.

Is it a good idea? Did it function to lessen danger? I don't know. But no one is talking about doing anything to our Muslims, and technically speaking, the program that existed did not track Muslims, but visitors from high-risk areas. Given the visa overstay problem, which is massive, it might not be a bad idea. Because if a person required to check in doesn't, and hasn't left the country, it might alert security personnel to something.

Albright seems to be confused or be deliberately confusing people.

[highplainsdem]

7. K&R

[msanthrope]

8. I'm an atheist. I'm gonna register, too. nt

[gopiscrap]

9. I have been a Christian

participating in Christian denominations all my life but the minute he does that registry I am signing up as a Muslim.

[jzodda]

10. Great idea

I now also want to do this

[LanternWaste]

11. He did in fact, call for a domestic registry of Muslims.

"even Trump has never call for a "registry of Muslims..."

"He also called for a domestic Muslim registry. Toward the end of the campaign, that pledge was tweaked—a seeming concession to the fact that a religion-based ban would clearly violate the Constitution..."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/01/donald_trump_s_executive_orders_on_immigration_are_a_bad_sign_for_muslims.html

[MosheFeingold]

12. Sadly a religious ban on immigration would be Constitutional

Albeit repugnant. Congress (not Trump, which is a distinctly different thing) can set whatever laws it wants in place for immigration.

And we've had them in the past, specifically moving Jewish people down the list of permitted immigrants prior to WWII.

[snacker]

13. Yes!

We will all register!

[malthaussen]

15. I wonder how many of those who proclaim they will register as Muslims...

... will do so if there are criminal penalties attached to falsely registering. (We'll set aside the thorny question of how such penalties would actually be enforced)

In general, I disregard all claims one might make as to what he "will do" until the actual moment for action occurs.

-- Mal

[tblue37]

16. Muslim is a religios affiliation. If someone claims to be as Christian, how woulkd you prove

otherwise.

Similarly, if someone claims to have converted to Islam, then you could not prove they are not a believer in that religion.

And just as some people are nonpracticing Catholics or nonobservant Jews, a person could be a nonobservant Muslim. Since being nonobservant did not protect Jews in Nazi Germany, and would not protect Muslims in neonazi Trumpistan, a person claiming to be a Muslim would not necessarily have to observe the rules and rituals to consider themselves Muslim.