President Trump's executive order on immigration from several Middle Eastern countries (
listed in full in this article from The Guardian), has caused no shortage of debate, inside the United States and out. Yesterday, Linden Lab made the decision to get involved in the debate by issuing
this statement.
We at Linden Lab are extremely disappointed in and adamantly opposed to
Trump’s recent executive order on immigration. We reject racism,
intolerance, and xenophobia.
We are proud to include immigrants
among our leadership, colleagues, and customers, as well as our
families, friends, and communities. We value diversity, compassion, and
understanding, and we are proud that our products enable people to come
together and form meaningful connections regardless of differences in
their offline lives.
Trump’s order is counter to what we value
and antithetical to American ideals. We join the many voices calling on
the US government to remove this restriction as quickly as possible and
to refrain from imposing additional barriers that threaten opportunities
for immigrants, under-represented minorities, and women.
Hamlet Au, whom in the past was under the employ of Linden Lab,
praised the statement's choice of words, contrasting them to the "mild and conciliatory" statement issued by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, whom expressed concern about "the impact of the recent executive orders," but expressed relief that the President was willing to allow the children of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. (
statement in full).
Liberals and progressives have mostly condemned the President's executive orders, calling the 90 day moratorium a "Muslim ban," and say it goes against the ideals of what America stands for. Some compared it to when the
SS St. Louis with over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany was denied entry in the United States. While a few conservatives have expressed reservations about the executive order, there has been general agreement among them that a temporary ban on countries where there's a problem with Islamic terrorism is a necessity. Some have pointed out Europe has had numerous problems with it's Muslim refugees,
including a number of reports of rape.
It should be noted on the day of Linden Lab's statement, there was a story in the news about
a fatal attack on a Denver policeman in which the man arrested was a Muslim. But the man arrested for murder was a native-born convert, not an immigrant, and the mosque he was attending reportedly tried to warn the police the man had been radicalized. Supporters and opponents of the executive order are likely to see the incident very differently.
Sources: The Guardian, Linden Lab, New World Notes, Facebook, ABC News
Bixyl Shuftan
