Donald Trump's attempts to prevent citizens of six predominantly Muslim nations from entering the US is helping the cause of extremists, former British prime minister David Cameron has declared.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
Mr Cameron, speaking at the World Travel & Tourism Council global summit in Bangkok, named Islamist terrorism as the major challenge facing the world, including the tourism industry which employs nearly one in 10 people around the globe.
In the lead up to last year's US election, Mr Cameron labelled Mr Trump's policy to ban Muslims entering America as "divisive, stupid and wrong".
On Wednesday, he said the challenge was to show the overwhelming majority of Muslims that the West was on its side in the battle against extremism and that banning people from a country that the West was trying to help was "not the act of a friend".
"Iraq is our ally. We are working with the Iraqis to try and rid that country of Islamic extremist terror, if you send a message that no one from Iraq can come to your country that is not the act of a friend," Mr Cameron said.
Labelling all people from Muslim dominant countries as a risk was counter-intuitive, the former PM said.
"It's not a clash between civilisations we face, that is what the extremists want us to think, this is, if you like, a war within Islam," Mr Cameron said.
"Our job is to take the side of the moderates and defeat the extremists."
"We must not play into their hands."
US courts have blocked Mr Trump's executive order to prevent people from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - from entering the US.
A second ban order, which does not include Iraq, was issued in March, but it also been blocked by legal challenges.
Mr Cameron who stood down as prime minister in June 2016 after the Brexit referendum said the decline of globalisation, which had benefited the tourism industry, was not inevitable.
He said globalisation however needed a "serious course correction" to ensure that those left behind by it, reaped some of its benefits.
"Frankly we can't go on with companies trading across the world making vast profits, but not paying proper taxes," Mr Cameron said.
He also called on the tourism industry to work with governments to stop child prostitution and sexual exploitation.
A major push from the World Travel & Tourism Council has been to make travelling easier by streamlining visa processes.
Mr Cameron said governments needed to keep strong borders and work with each other to share data about people who were overstaying visas.
The reporter travelled to Bangkok Global Summit as a guest of the World Travel & Tourism Council.
