If Trump is willing to trample Muslim U.S. citizens’ rights, who is next?

Donald Trump’s call earlier this week to ban all Muslims from entering the country and to catalog all Muslims currently in the country is absurd and frankly runs counter to the ideals and freedoms on which our country was founded. He is advocating blatant discrimination. His remarks are deplorable.

Some have equated Trump’s idea to FDR’s Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the relocation of over 100,000 Americans with Japanese ancestry to internment camps. They say these are necessary steps to ensure the safety of Americans.

Speaking from the White House on August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan said of the internment camps, ‘’Yes, the nation was then at war, struggling for its survival. And it’s not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that, a mistake.’’ More than a mistake, it was a grave violation of civil liberties and a blot on America’s commitment to constitutional rights.

In 1988, President George Bush said, “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II.”

Trump’s comments indicated he would take these actions not only against immigrants, but U.S. citizens of the Muslim faith as well. As a Christian, I do not agree with Islam. But if, as citizens of the United States, we cannot rely on the Constitution for our protection, what rights or freedoms do we have left? And if Mr. Trump is willing to violate the rights of U.S. citizens of the Muslim faith, who is next?