This is not who we are. This is not what America is.

The 2016 presidential contest took a frightening and disgusting turn this past week when one candidate for president suggested the United States should close its borders to Muslims — a stark and stunning rebuke of one of the core values of a country that was built upon religious freedom and tolerance.

Some apologists have since pointed to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, or the cancellation of visas for Iranian students during the Iran crisis, as examples of a similar precedent within our country.

The suggestion to close our country to Muslims, however, is not comparable in any way. The examples cited by some were aimed at foreign nations, not the religious beliefs of those seeking to enter our country.

Bainbridge has a voice in this debate. At this week’s council meeting, City Councilman Val Tollefson noted the recent online post by islander Marsha Cutting, who wrote:

“…In recent weeks, at least two politicians have pointed to the incarceration of Japanese American citizens during World War II as a positive action, one that ought to be echoed by actions to exclude another class of people, Muslims, from American civic life in one way or another. We who live on Bainbridge Island are called to speak to this issue; it was, of course, here that the exclusion of Japanese American citizens began, an event we remember with the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial on the shore of Eagle Harbor.

“We have lived with the scars of this action in our island life for many years, and we have not forgotten. We say to the nation that the exclusion and incarceration of Japanese American citizens and resident aliens remains a stain on the honor of our nation, one that has been recognized by an official apology and reparations. We urge the nation to remember these tragic events not as a model for government policy, but as what they were, a grave error, and say, ‘Let it not happen again.’ ‘Nidoto Nai Yoni.’”

Councilman Tollefson has suggested the council draft a resolution embodying this sentiment, with a possible vote on Jan. 5.

It’s important that islanders, and all Americans, speak out and remind our fellow citizens that we are made stronger as a country by preserving the values that have made our country the greatest in history and a continuing beacon of light and hope around the world.