Here’s what Muslim celebrities are saying about Trump’s ban on Muslims

Donald Trump’s comments vilifying the Muslim community have been escalating for weeks now. His comments have drawn sharp criticism from many politicians—and Muslim celebrities are speaking out, too.

Here’s what they’re saying:

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR

In a recent essay for Time magazine, six-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar argued Trump’s hate speak is quite literally terrorism and compared Trump to ISIS.

If violence can be an abstraction — and it can; that’s what a threat is — the Trump campaign meets this definition. Thus, Trump is ISIS’s greatest triumph: the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS’s job for them. Even fellow Republican Jeb Bush acknowledged Trump’s goal is “to manipulate people’s angst and fears.”

After Trump questioned whether there were any sport heroes that were Muslim, Abdul-Jabbar questioned whether Trump had what it takes to become president.

What makes his statement even more insidious is the suggestion that, even if there were no Muslim sports heroes, Muslims would somehow be lesser people, less worthy. This cruel and dim-witted thinking is not the stuff presidents are made of.

MUHAMMAD ALI

Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali released a statement that didn’t mention Trump by name but instead warned of “presidential candidates proposing to ban Muslim immigration to the United States.”

“I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world,” Ali said in the statement. “True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.”

“I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is,” he said.

HUMA ABEDIN

Hillary Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin wrote an email to Clinton supporters saying Trump wants to “write racism into our law books.”

“I’m a proud Muslim—but you don’t have to share my faith to share my disgust,” she wrote. “Trump wants to literally write racism into our law books. His Islamaphobia doesn’t reflect our nation’s values.”