Sep 25, 2016
Toward Intelligent Progress, Part 7
Refugees
The Left is correct that we need to show compassion toward refugees, but the right is correct to point out that the people of Islam pose a higher statistical danger than those of other beliefs and some screening is necessary for the sake of national security.
Neither the left or the right believe that all Muslims are a threat, but we cannot escape the fact that a certain percentage are dangerous and this must be taken into consideration.
King Abdullah II of Jordan certainly sounds like one of the good Muslims and addressed terrorism in his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Sept 20, 2016) portraying the “network of extremist terrorists” as a force seeking “global dominance” so they can “erase human civilization, and drag us back to the dark ages.”
“My friends, when the outlaws of Islam, the khawarej, murder; when they plunder; when they exploit children and reject the equality of women before God, they abuse Islam,” Abdullah declared. “When the khawarej persecute minorities, when they deny freedom of religion – they abuse Islam.”
“Islam teaches that all humanity is equal in dignity. There is no distinction among different nations or regions or races. The Qur’an forbids coercion in religion. Every citizen is guaranteed the state’s protection for their lives, families, properties, honour, privacy, and freedom of religion and thought,” said Abdullah, who further argued that true Muslims “believe in the divine origin of the Bible and the Torah,” noting how often Moses, Jesus, and Mary are mentioned in the Koran.
Many Muslims, like King Abdullah, have advanced beyond the taking of all passages in black and white terms just as many Christians have with their own scriptures. Many are starting to put emphasis on the positive messages of the Quran rather than the negative and in this type of spiritual evolution lies great hope for Islam and the world
So, what should we do about the refugee problem then? Before we answer that problem we need to ask what their situation is now?
Many have a wrong idea of the situation of most of them seeing them as wandering hopelessly through the desert not knowing where their next food or drink will come from. The truth is most of the refugees outside Syria are living in a camp of some kind with their necessities taken care of, often including schooling for the children. There are certainly a number without shelter in Syria itself, but there’s no way to count them or assist them until they are registered with a neighboring nation or the U.N.
By last count (according to Wikipedia) there are almost 5 million registered as refugees and over a million more assumed to be unregistered. Fortunately, most of them have been taken in my neighboring Islamic countries where there is no clash of belief systems. Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have taken in most of them totaling 4,431,000 registered refugees with a total of around 5,500,000 total.
There are an additional 6.5 million displaced people within Syria itself. These are equivalent to the homeless here in the United States. Many are in some type of tent city camp and others and looking for a permanent shelter.
At least these have an advantage over our homeless. When the homeless here attempt to build a tent city the government forces them to take it down while refugees suffer no such restrictions.
Assisting nations have donated over $17 billion in assistance with the United States giving $4.7 billion. This goes to various service organizations that assist the refugees with their necessities.
Unfortunately, there is always more in need in this world than there is power to assist. Where much attention is drawn to the 6.5 million of the displaced people in Syria many are not aware that there are many displaced in other nations.
Recent records indicate there are 6 million in Columbia, Iraq (3.6 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2.8 million), Sudan (2.2 million), South Sudan (1.6 million), Pakistan (1.4 million), Nigeria (1.2 million) and Somalia (1.1 million).
In Iraq where there was a great displacement of Christians, instead of anyone taking them in many were merely exterminated. Although one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, Iraq’s Christian population has fallen from around 1.5 million in 2003 to far below 200,000 now in what many scholars condemn as tantamount to genocide.
There was little worry about any of these turning into terrorists, but their cries for help were ignored.
Here in America we have around three million who are displaced or homeless in any given year and an estimated 564,000 any given night.
The bottom line is this. Syrian refugees are just one of many who need assistance and many of them are in a better situation than the homeless right here in the USA, many who wind up sleeping under a bridge or in a city park. Others in the winter fight for their lives against freezing temperatures.
Since we cannot help all people in need of assistance the question becomes, who do we help?
We are already giving over $4 billion to assist Syrians, but plans in in place to accept many refugees. The government has plans to spend least $64,000 for each refugee settled here.
How does this compare with the cost of assisting our own homeless?
Over 40% of the homeless in the United States are parents with children which would mean that there are at least two people involved in the average homeless situation. If we took that $64,000 refugee cost and applied it to two homeless people then that would give us $128,000 in assisting them with shelter. We could rent them an apartment for $800 a month and house them for 13 years for that amount, or $128,000 would purchase a modest dwelling in many cities.
In addition to this the homeless pose a very low security risk.
The bottom line is that we cannot help everyone, but we should help where we can. As it is, we have to borrow money from our grandchildren and run up the national debt to help those within our own country increasing the danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
Overall assistance to refugees is most cost effective in give financial assistance to the U.N. to help settle refugees in their own lands among people of similar belief systems.
Those in need of assistance will be with us for some time to come. The best we can do at present is to sharpen our pencils and do our best to make sure our assistance dollars are spent as wisely as possible so the maximum number can be helped.
Those immigrants and refugees that are accepted should be willing to abide by the oath required of naturalized citizens which is as follows:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
Copyright by J J Dewey
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