The Syrian Refugee - a different perspective

With all the rhetoric this last week regarding tracking Muslims, closing mosques, allowing or not allowing Syrian refugees into the country, I'd like to look at it all in a different perspective.

I'm a born again Christian. I believe that the Bible is all truth and that it is as relevant today as it was at the time of writing. Therefore, I believe that it should be used to guide my life. In the Holy Bible, there is a story about Saul and Paul.

Saul was an evil man. His enemy were the Christians. Not only did he kill the Christians, the Bible tells us he enjoyed killing Christians. We know from other texts that he used many different ways to kill them - dismembering, feeding them to the lions, beheading them, and so on.

Paul, is one of our greatest prophets. He was a man of God, winning many over to become Christ followers. Many would say he was the  main advocate for bringing the Christian church to life. He is credited, with the direction of the Holy Spirit, to writing several of the New Testament chapters. He loved people and bringing them to Christ more than he loved himself.

Saul is Paul and Paul is Saul. He conversion was great and mighty and awesome. God stopped Saul in his tracks and changed his life in a moment.

I did not choose Saul to become Paul, no human did. In fact, if it were up to humans, the only choice he probably would have had was death. Saul was a hated and feared man. But, God saw something different - He sees the world from beginning to end. He knows exactly what must happen and when. He often does not give us the knowledge of what is happening - that is why we have faith.

The same is true for all of us. The person you meet on the street today, has the potential to be someone different a year from now. The Syrian refugee today may very well become someone diffeerent next year. What is our role in this story? If you are a Christian, your role is to listen to God. What does He want us, want you, to do differently today? Who does He want us, want you, to minister to today? How does He want us, want you, to change a life today?

What is the real security threat?

There are multiple states - I believe 31 at the last count - that have decided to not accept Syrian refugees because of the terrorist attacks in France. Most of these states have Republican governors; which comes to no one's surprise with the rhetoric coming out the Republican Presidential candidates.



Yet, none of these same governors are recognizing how short sided this proclamation really is. All but one of the French terrorists were either French or Belgium nationals. Yes, they were of Syrian decent, but they were not all from Syria. This is a notion that is sometimes hard for Americans to understand; national origin in many countries is much different than skin color and ethnicity, and basically refers to the citizenship of each person. It also means that most of the terrorists didn't need passports to get into Paris - they already lived in the European Union. Yes, there was one confirmed terrorist who embedded himself into a group of Syrian refugees.

According to a CNN report,

"One of the men who attached Paris held an emergency passport or similar document, according to an unnamed French senator who was briefed by the French Ministry of the Interior. The senator told CNN the bomber falsely declared himself to be a Syrian named Ahmad al Muhammad, born on September 10, 1990, and was allowed to enter Greece on October 3. From there he moved to Macedonia, then Serbia and Croatia, where he registered in the Opatovac refugee camp, the lawmaker said. Eventually, he made his way to Paris, where he was one of three men who blew themselves up at the Stade de France."

Does this one terrorist prove that all Syrian refugees are terrorists? Does it prove that the refugees are more susceptible to being terrorists?  The answer is an emphatic NO.

Let's dig into this a bit deeper. The refugee crisis in Europe is something that has been building for some time. The borders between European countries are rather lax and often very porous. An ISIS operative embedding themselves into a refugee group would be able to move fairly freely throughout Europe. The movement would be relatively quick; making it from one country to the next within several days to a couple of weeks. The terrorist referenced in the above commentary was able to make it from Greece to Paris, France in little less than 4 weeks. Not bad for someone who is planning a large scale offensive and doesn't want to be noticed.

Now, let's look at the situation with Syrian refugees entering the United States. Refugees being vetted for entry would be housed in a separate refugee area selected by the United Nations. Those in this area would go through a very strict vetting period being interviewed by several U.S. governmental and security organizations, fingerprinting, background checks, etc. The entire process takes about 18 months to complete and could take up to 24 months. The refugees the U.S. would receive in 2016, are those that have been waiting since early 2015. 

Is it realistic to think that a terrorist suspect is going to live in a refugee camp, where he or she will be watched and scrutinized, for 18 - 24 months?

There are easier ways to get into the U.S. than using the refugee status. One of those ways is the Free Waiver Program.  

Under the program - which covers 38 countries, 30 of which are in Europe, including France, Belgium and Germany - citizens of waiver countries can enter the U.S. with minimal screening. That make it much harder to identify and weed out European nationals seeking to enter the U.S. after traveling to ISIS training camps in other nations and then returning to Europe.  

The only requirements of European Nationals traveling in the Free Waiver Program are to have a valid passport, register electronically before traveling to the U.S., and limit their stays to 90 days. We now know, that most of the French Terrorists were living in Belgium - one of the countries in the Free Waiver Program - and traveled to France relatively recently.  There is very little vetting of these travelers because there is a lack of shared databases and information between the countries.

Yet, the U.S. government is not making any changes to the program in the near future. Instead of closing a loophole and very real security risk, we would rather continue to persecute people who have already endured enough pain and heartache to last a lifetime.

Once again, we have used stereotypes and fears to rule our government and not smart and viable decisions.