Is It Un-American to Prefer Christian Over Muslim Refugees?

Two weeks ago, Muslim terrorists murdered 129-people in Paris.  At least one of the ISIS perpetrators apparently entered Europe as a ‘refugee’ from Syria (he was found with a refugee ID).  ISIS has already claimed that they have infiltrated the Syrian refugee population … perhaps thousands of terrorists.

Last week, President Obama announced that it would be purely un-American for Westerners to ban unvetted Muslim immigrants from the Middle East while allowing Christian targets of genocide to enter the West.  He called such an idea “shameful” … while passionately calling for Americans to “open our hearts” to more refugees.  He praised bordering countries (Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon) for taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees; Obama said that showed their “belief in a common humanity.”  He added, “And so we have to, each of us, do our part.  And the United States has to step up and do its part.  And when I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims – that’s not American.  That’s not who we are."

The fact is, every aspect of this little speech is wrong.  Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon aren’t taking in Muslim refugees out of some great commitment to common humanity.  They’re doing so because their other choice involves setting up fences and machine guns to stop the waves of refugees crossing their frontiers.  And as we know, Muslim countries have a rotten history of absorbing fellow members of their ummah (meaning ‘nation’ or ‘community’).  For 70-years, since the creation of the State of Israel, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs have lived in refugee camps located in Muslim lands.  By contrast, the State of Israel has taken in every Jewish refugee seeking asylum … from Russian emigres to Moroccan immigrants; from Ethiopian refugees to Syrian expatriates.

And the West has good reason for skepticism toward Muslim refugees. While Muslim refugees who stay in the Middle East split evenly between males and females, the vast majority of refugees entering Europe are males of fighting age.  Muslim immigration has already led to massive increases in crime from France to Sweden; and cultural fragmentation from Great Britain to Austria.  Terrorism is only the latest threat … and even that threat is obviously not exaggerated.  Vetting refugees from Syria is nearly impossible given its status as a failed state.  Vetting Muslim refugees is totally impossible given the fact that radical Muslims can easily masquerade as less-radical Muslims.

So why does Obama, along with the global left, seek more Muslim immigration?  Because Obama does not believe that Islam, as a religious philosophy, presents any threat to the West.  He believes that radical Islam doesn’t exist.  It’s merely the hallmark of global poverty, probably affected negatively by climate change; if the West redistributed its wealth, ceased its ‘colonial’ attitudes toward the Middle East; all would be well.  The materialism of Marxism would win the day.

Never mind that this argument is entirely without evidence.  Never mind that Muslims from Western nations have left wealth to join the impoverished ISIS fighters.  Never mind that Osama Bin Laden (himself) was a wealthy man who lived in a cave to plan attacks against Westerners.  Ideology matters, but to the self-centered Marxists of the global left, only their ideology matters: Everyone else has merely fallen into nasty ideas … thanks to lack of resources.

And so we must give them our resources; endanger our own citizens.  To do anything else would be un-American … according to the people whose idea of Americanism involves the rejection of the very ideas upon which America was founded.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel