BERLIN – Warning against the ever-increasing refugees problem, Hollywood star George Clooney said he trusts that the American people would reject Donald Trump and his calls to ban Muslims from entering the US.
“For me the refugee crisis is not just the Syrian refugees,” Clooney told Reuters.
“You know there’s still IDPs (internally displaced people) and refugees in South Sudan, in Darfur, that’s still millions of people and they are still dying.
“So it’s really all over the world – 60 million displaced people right now in the world – it’s just a terrible, terrible time for it,” he added.
The Hollywood star was speaking on the same day he and his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, met German Chancellor Angela Merkel behind closed doors at the chancellery to discuss the refugee issue.
The Clooneys were in the German capital for the international premiere of “Hail, Caesar!”, in which Clooney has a starring role and which opened the Berlin International Film Festival on Thursday.
Urged to use his public prominence to do more to help end the refugee crisis, Clooney criticized Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump calls for banning Muslims and building a border wall to block illegal Mexican immigrants.
He added that he does not think the billionaire businessman would ever become president.
“I always have to caution people when they watch American politics. We go a little crazy during the political season and it’s a very long season,” Clooney said, adding:
“I think it was Winston Churchill who said, ‘You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they have exhausted every other possibility’. So you know it’s all going to be fine it’s just going to take us a minute.”
The support offered by Clooney is not the first.
Last year, the Hollywood superstar spoke out against Islamophobia during his speech at Golden Globes, saying that the rising anti-Muslim fervor shouldn’t surge after Paris attacks that left 17 killed.
Muslims make up 1% of America’s 322 million population, according to Pew Research center.
Anti-Muslim sentiments have reached an all-time high after the rise of the so-called Islamic State, formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Moreover, the Republican presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, have added to increasing anti-Muslim sentiments.
Trump’s views on immigration have sparked controversy nationwide, especially his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US.