On CNN, Reza Aslan Schools Trump Surrogate On The Bigoted Nature Of Trump's Proposed Muslim Ban
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: You said a complete ban on Muslims. [Donald Trump] said a temporary ban until we find out what’s going on. That was on the heels of someone getting into our country, Tashfeen Malik, and taking 18 lives. That was on the heels of that. It’s since been reformed to be people who come from terror hotbed countries. Let’s get our facts right, because nuance matters. And to come on and say, “a complete ban,” you leave out all the nuance, you leave out the “temporary,” you leave out “until we figure out what’s going on” and you scare a heck of a lot of people.
REZA ASLAN: Actually, the truth, Kayleigh, is that Donald Trump has yet to actually clarify. The ban on Muslims is still on his website. It’s still part of his platform. We’ve gotten numerous indications, back and forth, from his campaign, about whether that actually means a religious test or whether that’s from Muslim-majority countries, which in and of itself is quite problematic, because that’s not where all the terrorism is. I mean, look, the fact of the matter is that anti-Muslim bigotry has been the hallmark of Donald Trump’s campaign throughout. And now, he has brought together a cabinet, so far, of people who tend to agree with his views about Islam and about Muslims and that has to be problematic. And again, to this whole constitutional element thing here, it’s really just math, Kayleigh. If Islam is not a religion, then Muslims don’t get religious rights, period.