President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans the travel of citizens from seven Muslim countries to the United States, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is emotional over it.
The Brooklyn Nets forward is a practicing Muslim and, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post, the newest executive order had a profound emotion impact on the 22-year old.
“We try to teach people not to point the finger, blame a whole [group]. You can’t judge a whole group by one’s actions at the end of the day. And I feel like that’s not right. That’s definitely not right,’’ said Hollis-Jefferson ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “You can’t speak for all Muslims, because all Muslims’ hearts aren’t like that. Most of them are pure, really believe in a different way and a different livelihood.”
It was at this point that the Chester, Pennslyvania native had to step away from reporters and compose himself, per Lewis.
“This is kind of hard. My bad. This is kind of touching … just being a part of that community and a part of that family,’’ continued Hollis-Jefferson. “I feel like this should definitely be handled differently, and I feel like more people should definitely speak up and act on it just because it’s BS at the end of the day.”
President Trump’s most recent executive order looks like a Muslim ban more than anything else because the majority of immigrants that are included are from Muslim-practicing countries. For the next 90 days, citizens from Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Syria will not be allowed to enter the United States. That number of residents is estimated to be around 130 million, per the Wall Street Journal. (Oh, the countries colored in yellow are where President Trump does business.)
Trump’s immigration ban excludes countries with business ties https://t.co/XEcwMJaKht pic.twitter.com/nRNNmXscMZ
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) January 26, 2017
Hollis-Jefferson isn’t the only member of the NBA family to speak out. Spokesperson Mike Bass said the league has “reached out to the State Department and are in the process of gathering information to understand how this executive order would apply to the players in our league who are from one of the impacted countries,” according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
As expected, pretty much everyone else with a moral compass spoke out against the ban, including Elon Musk, who is a member of Trump’s advisory team.
The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017
Hollis-Jefferson and the Nets are just 9-38 on the year and hold the NBA’s worst record, but it’s clear that there are more important things to worry about that go beyond basketball.
Start a conversation with me on Twitter
