Academy Award-winning actress and longtime human rights activist Angelina Jolie penned a heartfelt op-ed for The New York Times yesterday, and in it, she discussed the current political climate, and the contentious legislation enacted by President Trump that essentially bans refugees from 7 predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country.
“Refugees are men, women and children caught in the fury of war, or the cross hairs of persecution. Far from being terrorists, they are often the victims of terrorism themselves,” Jolie says in the introduction of her NYT piece. “I’m proud of our country’s history of giving shelter to the most vulnerable people. Americans have shed blood to defend the idea that human rights transcend culture, geography, ethnicity and religion. The decision to suspend the resettlement of refugees to the United States and deny entry to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries has been met with shock by our friends around the world precisely because of this record.”
While this isn’t the first time Jolie (who is also a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has spoken up, her poignant words—which call for a compassionate approach to the treatment of refugees—couldn’t come at a more perfect time.
“The lesson of the years we have spent fighting terrorism since Sept. 11 is that every time we depart from our values we worsen the very problem we are trying to contain,” said Jolie. “We must never allow our values to become the collateral damage of a search for greater security. Shutting our door to refugees or discriminating among them is not our way, and does not make us safer. Acting out of fear is not our way. Targeting the weakest does not show strength.”
She concludes:
“We all want to keep our country safe. So we must look to the sources of the terrorist threat — to the conflicts that give space and oxygen to groups like the Islamic State, and the despair and lawlessness on which they feed. We have to make common cause with people of all faiths and backgrounds fighting the same threat and seeking the same security. This is where I would hope any president of our great nation would lead on behalf of all Americans.”
Read the entirety of Angelina Jolie’s op-ed in The New York Timeshere.
