NFL Player Oday Aboushi Calls Out Donald Trump's Anti-Muslim Policies

Houston Texan guard Oday Aboushi is joining the many Muslim-Americans speaking out against Donald Trump's anti-Muslim policies.

"It's more alarming that a person is proposing something like this," Aboushi tells Yahoo Sports. "It's such a small-minded idea. How can you punish a whole religion based off a few people? If people did that, the world will be doomed. To have a guy like that is alarming. What are his true motives? Imagine what's next, what's possible, what else is he willing to step over or on."

Aboushi, who was born in New York to Palestinian immigrant parents, was honored by the State Department in 2011 for his athletic contributions as a Muslim-American. He was drafted to the NFL in 2013 to play for the Jets and transferred to the Texans in 2015.

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"There's a basis of innocence to [Islam]," Aboushi says. "It has a basis in humanity. But the reputation of Muslims is going to get tarnished because of the few individuals that are doing things on their own terms."

Aboushi is no stranger to Islamophobia. The Anti-Defamation League made a statement in the football player's defense in 2013 after a blog called him a "Muslim extremist" for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Aboushi says of Trump and the reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., "but it's an opportunity to correct people and let them know what the religion is about. They're not just gonna learn. You have to take it on yourself to make them understand."