When you go to the United States, it is not uncommon to mention if you consider yourself as White, Black, Caucasian or Hispanic when filling out forms. But things have changed since the beginning of the year and Donald Trump has just signed a new directive! As from July 2017, every single documentation issued in the United States, such as passports or driver’s licences, will have a specific box mentioning the religion of its holder.

Whether you go to the Temple, the Mosque, the Church,… or nowhere at all, every American will have to fill up a form mentioning which religion he follows. The procedure has already started in New York City and will gradually be expanded to the rest of the country before Independence Day.

The religious orientation will have to be precise

Catholic? Protestant? Ashkenazy? Sufi? Animist? Shiite?  Mormon? The choice is yours as long as you are precise. But simply mentioning Muslim or Christian will not be enough. The goal is simple: to track the population that could potentially threaten the safety of the United States.

Every police officer will have access to the database

Sheriffs and police officers will immediately be able to detect the « risky profiles » when controlling the population. If a police officer sees « Muslim salafist » written on the driver’s licence of someone involved in a car accident, he will be allowed to put him into custody and will report him to the prosecutor.

What if you change religion?

Should you wish to amend the information mentioned on your driver’s licence (so if you want to convert to a new religion) the change will have to be authorised by the competent authorities and will trigger a specific investigation: your neighbours will be questioned and an officer will come to your place to make sure that the change is genuine.

Any drift potential?

Several NGOs are already protesting and compare this practice to the yellow stars issued to the Jews between 1940 and 1945 in Europe during the Second World War. But several politicians tried to reassure the population : Sean Spicer commented to CNN that, if the Democrats win the next elections, they will limit the directive to the Muslim population.