Imposing a temporary travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim countries, President Donald Trump said the move would help protect the US from terrorism. But less than one-third of Americans believe the move makes them “more safe,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.
The Jan. 30-31 poll found roughly one in two Americans backed the ban, which also suspends admission of all refugees for 120 days, although there were sharp divisions along party lines.
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll some 31 percent of people said the ban made them feel “more safe,” while 26 percent said it made them feel “less safe.” Another 33 percent said it would not make any difference and the rest said they do not know.
Trump’s executive order blocked citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and placed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.
Some Republican lawmakers criticized Trump’s order and said it could backfire by giving terrorist organizations a new recruitment message.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 49 percent of Americans agreed with the order and 41 percent disagreed. Some 53 percent of Democrats said they “strongly disagree” with Trump’s action while 51 percent of Republicans said they “strongly agree.”
Democrats were more than three times as likely as Republicans to say that the “US should continue to take in immigrants and refugees,” and Republicans were more than three times as likely as Democrats to agree that “banning people from Muslim countries is necessary to prevent terrorism.”
Most Americans, however, do not think the country should show a preference for Christian refugees, as Trump has suggested. Some 56 percent, including 72 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of Republicans, disagreed that the country should “welcome Christian refugees, but not Muslim ones.”
On Tuesday, the Trump administration sought to clarify that citizens of US ally Israel who were born in Arab countries would be allowed into the US.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani dismissed Trump as a political novice on Wednesday, stepping up criticism of the Republican’s immigration policies including a temporary travel ban on Iranians.
Rouhani turned the focus on Trump himself in a live address on state television, saying: “He (Trump) is new to politics. He has been in a different world. It’s a totally new environment to him.”
“It will take him a long time and will cost the US a lot, until he learns what is happening in the world,” added Rouhani, who led a rapprochement with Washington under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
“Today is not a time for separating nations by walls,” Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to Trump’s promise to build a barrier along the US border with Mexico.

Source : Arab News