Being Egyptian, I have a fear of losing family members that keeps me up at night. The fear of going to an airport and being questioned before I could get on the flight keeps me up at night. The fear of not knowing how much worse it could get keeps me up at night. These fears haunt me, when I wake up and when I go to sleep, all because of one thing — the Muslim Ban.

From the things our President, Donald Trump has done and said, I saw this coming. From a mile away you could see and hear his hatred for those of certain race and color. Some may ask why I would be so offended and scared of such a thing if Egypt isn’t one of the countries.

Well, Iran is. The father of my three little brothers could go and visit his country and not be able to come back because of this. Yet, according to Express, Trump states in an interview that, “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe.” If it’s not about religion then why do White House officials keep referring to it as a “travel ban,” and why is it targeted on Muslim countries?

Trump also went on to say “it’s about keeping our country safe.” I have to ask safe from what? Safe from terrorism? Safe from innocent people? This Muslim Ban feels more personal than just keeping our country safe. If he wants to keep our country safe he should target those actual terror groups like ISIS, not countries with a large majority of Muslims!

It saddens me to have to change the news channel when my mom walks into the room because she feels as if she doesn’t belong. It saddens me to hear my brothers ask, “Why is he doing this?” It’s racist of a president to do this, it’s morally wrong, because there are ways to keep the country safe without having to issue a travel ban on certain Muslim countries.

The ban doesn’t just ban Muslims from traveling. It prevents families from seeing each other. It keeps children from growing up with the freedom they deserve. It especially bans equality. How could we be a country built on immigration and equality yet we aren’t letting certain people in.

Now, why do I, someone whom the ban doesn’t even affect, complain about it? Well, it affects me emotionally, because I know of people who have been stopped and questioned because of this. This isn’t something to keep the country safe. This is something that the president thinks will keep it safe.