Dear Donald Trump
My own birthday gift to myself for my 40 years’ birthday is a trip to New York with my husband. However, I am one of those people that you would like to stop at the border for the sole reason that I am a Muslim. But actually, I am so much more than that.
I come from a working class family. My mother left school after 3rd grade, and my father only learned to read and write in the military. My parents emigrated from Tyrkey in the seventies because they had heard of a country called Europe that needed manpower.
The American dream was alive and well in Anatolia; we too believed in opportunity. In the hope of offering his children a better future, my father found work in Germany and later in Finland. My mother, my older brother and I moved up to my father in Helsinki some years later and lived in a small house in the backyard of the Turkish embassy.
My father worked as a handyman, and my mother cleaned in the big house.
However, the loneliness took its toll, and the work was hard and tedious. My parents did not know anybody in Finland and lived a very isolated life. Somehow they heard of Denmark, though all they knew was that some families from the village back in Turkey had gone to live there, and that fresh vegetables were more available in Denmark than in Finland.
And there was work to be found. They still dreamed of having 40 sheep and a house back in the village, and raising the money in Denmark was as good as doing it by the ironing board in the embassador’s abode in Finland. This is how we ended up in Denmark.
To this day, my parents stress how grateful they are for Denmark. They thank their God, and they thank Denmark for making them able to feed themselves and their children and let us get a degree. They taught us right from the beginning that Denmark is our country, and how you must always be loyal to the country in which you live.
I was not born in Denmark, but I shall be buried here one day. Denmark has given me everything I have, and I shall work till the day I die to repay everything I can to my country. I got a degree as a nurse in spite of my humble origins. And although I was not born in Denmark, I achieved Danish citizenship and was allowed to be a member of the Danish Parliament for almost eight years.
I was raised as a believer in democracy in the Danish educational system, on the labor market, and later in the political communities in which I partook. I have experienced firsthand that the freedom rights apply to me too, even as a woman and as a member of a minority, and also to those with whom I downright disagree.
Oh, and by the way I am a Muslim. But first and foremost I am a human being, and as such I am very concerned currently. I believe that I got as scared as you did when terrorism struck in Paris, Libanon and Turkey within the same month, killing several hundred people. Mostly, however, I am concerned that the terrorists might manage to bomb hate and fear into all of us so that we lose our sense of direction and turn against each other.
Unfortunately, the terrorists have proven very efficient at dividing us and planting fear in us. Thus, we have begun to mistrust each other, and we direct the anger at Muslims as a community instead of directing it at those who threaten the democracy.
I feel concerned when I witness how you want to restrict my access to America solely due to my faith, being as you are a leading politician in a country that boasts its credentials as the land of the free. I am no enemy of the United States. Our political differences untold, the two of us are guardians of the democracy in the war on terror.
As are so many democratically minded citizens all over the world. Do not forget that terrorism has mainly targeted Muslims in later years.
Suffice it to cast a glance at Boko Haram and Islamic State. When the terror cells attack in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Libanon, Indonesia, Somalia etc., they mainly kill Muslims. And don’t be mistaken, my dear Donald! Muslims are at the forefront in the war on terror, starting with the tough Kurdish women and men that are taking Islamic State on.
Actually, I tend to believe that the terrorists want the West to turn on ordinary Muslims. The more islamophobia a society harbors, the easier it is for Islamic State to recruit new warriors. Do not aid them in this. Let us not be amongst those who add to the gap; let us instead build bridges. Our democratic communities cannot and should not exclude ordinary Muslims from fighting terror.
I would like to call upon you to open your door for a Muslim family this Christmas. Not only because festive seasons are most beautiful when we share them, but also because it will lead you to discover that the Muslims aren’t the enemies of the United States of America. After all, we have more in common than things to divide us. And who knows: You might change your mind and get to accept my visit to New York on my 40th birthday.
Merry Christmas!
Love, Özlem Cekic, former Member of Parliament for the leftwing Socialist People’s Party in Denmark.
Translated from the Danish by Sara Høyrup, MA & EMCI