Wednesday, November 18, 2015

I have some Questions about the Syrian Refugee Situation.

Politics. Boy, has this become much more of a mess and polarized than when I first started covering it so many years ago (like President George W. Bush's first term. A LONG time ago.) In a way, it seems that our representatives in both the house and the senate, plus our legislative branch have begun a war of worlds about what "they" want than following, what I would assume, is common sense. I wanted to focus on the whole immigration question that seems to have been filling facebook and the rest of the Internet.

The war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS or ISIL, the L being for Levant.  Originally a splinter group from al Qaeda (Yearout, 2014) that has become a much larger, well-known organization including its recent attack on Paris. (Callimachi, 2015, para.1)

Why do I bring this up? Well, I want you to understand one of the reaons behind the United States not wanting to accept Syrian refugees coming in to the country (Kingsley, 2015) and that even though it seems cruel and unjustifiable, there is a solid reason behind it (even if you do not like it).

Though the majority of politicians are using this as a political campaign, which also does not help the present situation, there is a legitimate threat that ISIS and their members might be using the refugee move from the Syrian civil war to cross in to other nations. (Lester, 2015, para. 16)

Yes, the U.S. government has a very strong vetting process being put in to place (Altman, 2015), but how do you run background checks of citizens of a country when the FBI has stated that it would be near impossible to do a thorough one? (Poole, 2015, para. 1)

Even with all this, President Obama decides to berate those people with concerns (AP, 2015) and I wonder if both sides are just choosing sides to irritate the other? Why have we not focused on trying to find a better way to bring them in?

Another issue, why are we bringing in refugees when there are other islamic countries, closer to their beliefs? Saudia Arabia has a complete empty camp ready for refugees and they stand empty!(McHugh, 2015) Europe is already collapsing because they cannot handle the onslaught of those looking for safety (Kingsley, 2015) and these countries, who by the Qoran calls them brothers, will not help. (Abdel, 2004, p. 439)(Kinninmont, 2015, para. 4) I'm not saying that we should block them on their religious beliefs, but I know many people who are far more comfortable around those who believe the same way.

Let's try to focus on the important parts, getting the true victims of this war in to our country and taking the necessary steps to protect us from those who would do us harm.

All my political posts have comments disabled because I refuse to allow trolls and others to start a political storm here just because they want to. If you want to discuss this, take the link and go to a forum that discusses politics. 

Works Cited

Abdel, H. M. "Common Kindnesses (Al-Maun)." The Qurʼan. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 439. Adobe PDF.

Altman, A. "Syrian Refugees: Here's How the Screening Process Works." N.p., 17 Nov. 2015. Web. <http://time.com/4116619/syrian-refugees-screening-process/?xid=fbshare>.

AP. "Obama berates GOP over Syrian refugees - CBS News." N.p., 18 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-berates-gop-over-syrian-refugees/>.

Callimachi, R. "ISIS Claims Responsibility, Calling Paris Attacks are First of the Storm - The New York Times." N.p., 14 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/world/europe/isis-claims-responsibility-for-paris-attacks-calling-them-miracles.html>.

Kingsley, P. "10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis | UK news | The Guardian." N.p., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis>.

Kinninmont, J. "Why Aren’t Gulf Countries Taking in Syrian Refugees? | Newsweek." N.p., 9 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.newsweek.com/why-arent-gulf-countries-taking-syrian-refugees-370189>.

Lester, D. "FBI: Impossible to Do Background Checks On All Syrian Refugees - SamePageNation." N.p., 23 Oct. 2015. 
Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://samepagenation.com/2015/10/done-fbi-not-possible-background-checks-syrian-refugees/>.

McHugh, J. "Refugee Crisis 2015: Saudi Arabia Criticized For 100,000 Air Conditioned Tents Not In Use." N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ibtimes.com/refugee-crisis-2015-saudi-arabia-criticized-100000-air-conditioned-tents-not-use-2095403>.

Poole, P. "Homeland Security, FBI Can’t Get Story Straight on Screening Syrian Refugees : U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert." N.p., 28 Oct. 2015. Web. <http://gohmert.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398267>.

Yearout, K. "ISIS vs ISIL - what's the difference?" N.p., 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/09/10/isis-vs-isil-islamic-state-iraq-syria/15403133/>.