I hate to say “told you so”.
Told you so. The only silver lining may be that this disrupted other plans.
I have since heard that this may have been an “informal” executive order as prep. for the Middle East visit this week. They wanted to convey that the US does not “persecute” Muslims internally.
Apparently, O & Co. felt this makes us look like China or other nations that attack religious “dissidents” for political reasons.
How they draw the moral equivalency on this defies common sense, but there it is.