George Takei: We Cannot Allow Trump To Open Muslim Internment Camps

George Takei, the veteran actor and director most famous for appearing the the original series of Star Trek, has spoken out against a proposal to register Muslims. A Trump surrogate claimed on Fox News that Japanese internment during World War II was precedent for Donald Trump’s proposed registry of Muslims, prompting Takei to act.

Takei and his family were interned during the war. Takei was a child at a time and he has spent years raising awareness about the camps – an often forgotten part of US history. Trump supporter Carl Higbie told Megyn Kelly the internment of innocent Japanese-Americans was justification for action against Muslims.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post Takei recalled his experiences in an internment camp and called on Americans to never let similar actions happen again. ““The internment was a dark chapter of American history, in which 120,000 people, including me and my family, lost our homes, our livelihoods, and our freedoms because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. Higbie speaks of the internment in the abstract, as a ‘precedent’ or a policy, ignoring the true human tragedy that occurred.”

Takei discussed how his family had their home and livelihood taken away from them even though they were not guilty of any crime. “If it is freedom and our way of life that we fight for, our first obligation is to ensure that our own government adheres to those principles,” Takei said. “Without that, we are no better than our enemies.”

During his campaign, Donald Trump proposed closing America’s borders to all Muslims and his close adviserws have suggested a national registry of Muslims. Keith Olbermann has also repeatedly warned that Trump’s immigration plan means concentration camps. “That cannot happen again,” Takei said. “We cannot allow it.”