To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

I pledge to register as Muslim if Trump is allowed to take power and starts a registry.

If Donald Trump and his administration attempt to register Muslims within our country’s borders, I pledge to stand with all Muslims and register myself. If millions of Americans join us in this effort, we will render this un-American act useless and send a message to the rest of the world that the people of this country are serious about our values of liberty and freedom for all.

Why is this important?

A popular story has been told over and over about Christian the Tenth, King of Denmark during World War II. It is said that during the dark days of German occupation, the Danish officials were asked to identify the country’s Jews by distributing the customary yellow star worn across Germany, Poland and Central Europe. King Christian received the order, and subsequently ordered that ALL Danes should wear the yellow star, making it impossible for the Germans to distinguish Jew from Christian. While historians aren’t sure if this actually took place, this example of extraordinary defiance against racism and oppression has been told over and over as a way to highlight the best of what humanity will do to oppose the worst of what humanity is capable of.

As Americans, we find ourselves in a similar historic situation to the Danes during World War II. We are being asked to stand by and allow a group to be singled out, registered, tracked and violently and systematically oppressed. There is literally nothing in the world more Un-American and chillingly authoritarian about what Donald Trump is proposing to do. The world is watching us, and history will judge by what we do next. For Japanese Americans, registries were the gateway to concentration camps. Trump advisors are citing Japanese internment as a precedent for the Muslim Registry. This is an injustice that we must never let happen again.

People of all faiths and backgrounds must stand with our Muslim and Arab brothers and sisters as they become the targets of racist vigilante violence, attacks by leaders of hate groups, and the racist policies Trump champions. If we allow our Muslim family to be denied their basic Constitutional and human rights then none of us are truly free. If enough people of all faiths sign this petition it can stop a registry from ever being created because it will be clear that the people of this country will never again allow any group to be singled out and their rights and freedoms denied because of hatred and bigotry.