Christian Refugees Left Out In The Cold

By Tom Olago

Infiltration, disguised as refugees, is proving to be the choicest move by extremists in the clandestine game plan towards striking terror and destruction in the West, and the rest of the ‘free world’. It has been reported that two, or maybe three, of the gunmen that hit Paris last Friday sneaked into France through the refugee program.

It’s no surprise then, that the recent terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted calls for stricter and more vigilant vetting of professing refugees from Syria and elsewhere. Clearly, some of those purporting to seek asylum in Western nations as refugees only have sinister motives and are determined to execute their nefarious agendas in any possible way. Such ‘refugees’ work in support of ISIS, and other similar terrorist and extremist groups. And there’s more reason for the West to be alarmed.

According to survey results published in a recent edition of Investors.com, 13 percent of Syrian refugees entering Europe support the Islamic State. The poll of 900 Syrian refugees by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies also found that another 10% of the displaced Syrians have a lukewarm, but not entirely negative, view of the terror group. That means 23% - or almost 1 in 4 - could be susceptible to ISIS recruitment. It also means as many 2,500 of the 10,000 Syrian refugees that the Obama administration is resettling inside American cities are potential terrorist threats.

The report also gives an example that well-illustrates the risks. Two al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq were once mistakenly resettled as refugees in Kentucky. Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were sent to Bowling Green even though they'd been detained by authorities in Iraq for killing U.S. soldiers. Alwan had crossed the border into Syria. Still, both passed background checks and were declared "clean." They were then placed in U.S. public housing and afforded other welfare benefits. The two refugees plotted to obtain Stinger missiles and attack homeland targets before they finally got caught.

Matters are not helped by FBI Director James Comey’s admission that the feds don't have the ability to do thorough background checks on the 10,000 refugees from Syria, where ISIS is headquartered. So apparently, vetting with fingers crossed is the only option left if refugees are to be allowed in at all. It would naturally be expected that this vetting process would at the very least be conducted in a fair and balanced manner.

It would also make sense to vet individuals who may be sympathetic to extremist religious groups more carefully. However, it is now emerging that Christian refugees and other non-Muslim minorities happen to be the ones most discriminated against during asylum vetting processes. According to a recent report from CNSNews.com, critics say this is because the federal government relies on the United Nations in the refugee application process – and since Syrian Christians are often afraid to register with the U.N., they and other non-Muslims are left out. 

Fleeing persecution at the hands of ISIS and other jihadist groups, Syrian Christians generally avoid U.N. refugee camps because they are targeted there too. Most refugees considered for resettlement in the U.S. are usually referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The process is said to involve vetting and interviews by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and takes an average of 18-24 months. According to recent State Department statistics, out of 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted into the U.S. since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, only 53 (2.4 percent) have been Christians while 2,098 (or 96 percent) have been Muslims. The remaining 33 include 1 Yazidi, 8 Jehovah Witnesses, 2 Baha’i, 6 Zoroastrians, 6 of "other religion," 7 of "no religion," and 3 atheists.

Granted that the Muslims are the majority in number anyway, so it makes sense that more of them would qualify numerically than other groups. However, the religion-based proportions are contrasting and speak for themselves. Syria’s population breakdown in early 2011 (before the civil war) was 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian, according to the CIA World Factbook. The current 2.4 percent admission of Christians is therefore lower than would be expected, and similarly the 96 percent awarded to Muslims higher than proportionate.

It’s not clear on what basis it would be that the minority groups seem to have been awarded a higher risk profile. In the U.S, following the recent Paris attacks, calls to limit the number of Muslim refugees have elicited various responses. President Obama said Monday termed calls from some quarters for the U.S. to admit only Christian refugees from Syria “shameful” in regards to the idea of resettling tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in America.

Some Republican presidential candidates and governors are instead calling for an approach that limits the numbers of refugees from Syria, while addressing the U.N. referral problem that “…unintentionally discriminates against Syrian Christians and other religious minorities who are reluctant to register as refugees with the United Nations for fear of political and sectarian retribution.” Syrian Christians, including women and children have been targeted for the worst kinds of persecution under ISIS, and suffered varied forms of torture. Their deaths are usually in the form of publicized mass beheadings. Calls to prioritize the resettlement of persecuted religious minorities were also fronted by some within U.S political circles. The concept isn’t popular everywhere though.

A recent example is from Australia, where Muslim groups reportedly accused the government of religious bigotry for announcing in September that a plan to admit an additional 12,000 refugees from the conflict will prioritize “those most in need – the women, children and families of persecuted minorities.” The observation that Christians fleeing ISIS “seldom go to the main refugee camps in neighboring countries because they are marginalized, abused, and at serious risk of violence in these Muslim-majority shelters” was made by Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of Barnabas Fund, which is a charity campaigning to help rescue Christians from Syria. Sookhdeo added that such vulnerable Christians are being overlooked in rescue programs that only take those who are in camps to safety. 

Other observers have called for more accommodative interventions by Muslim governments. George Carey, a former leader of the world’s Anglicans, is reported to have asked rhetorically: “Isn’t it high-time instead for the oil-rich Gulf States to open their doors to the many Muslims who are fleeing conflict? Surely if they are concerned for fellow Muslims who prefer to live in Muslim-majority countries, then they have a moral responsibility to intervene.”