I keep hearing some form of this argument as an excuse not to accept refugees into the U.S.
Below is a real comment posted on Jade’s page after she posted a photo of one of our friends we met in Kara Tepe refugee camp:
“I don’t “hate” anyone. “Hate” is a waste of energy. I just believe that you should be willing to stand up and fight for your beliefs, family, country and freedom…….not run and wait for someone else to do it for you while you sit safely on the sidelines……” -Facebook Comment
I find it interesting that this woman was also the mother of a U.S. soldier and clearly had no understanding of what the young Syrian men are facing at home. Our friends in the camp had passionately explained that if they were to stay in Syria, they would be forced to join the military, which would make them terrorists. I would think that she would appreciate these men risking their lives to flee peacefully and refuse to fight against her son and the U.S. military.
An additional element to this complex issue is ISIS, which many political experts are calling an attempt at becoming the new Ottoman Empire.
“What followed after World War I is the source of justified grievance in the Arab world.
… This is a narrative that ISIS is probably all too happy to embrace and propagate, casting itself as an avenger of history and the next heir to the caliphate after the Ottoman Empire.” -Ishaan Tharoor
Now here is a bit of random information-
My father’s side of the family came to the U.S. as refugees of the Armenian Genocide. My great grandparents were refugee children traveling with friends and relatives because they had killed my great-great grandparents in a church. Guess who started the mass killings? The Ottoman Empire. The slaughtering of 1.5 million Armenians isn’t even recognized officially by the U.S. for political reasons, yet we still opened our doors to the people being persecuted. And now that the Ottoman Empire 2.0 is gearing up to do this again, our modern-day American response is “not my problem, be independent and fight your own battles.” But… our military has already gotten involved and this very much is our problem.
In the Moria camp, where the majority of people are Afghani refugees, many of the people stuck in this concentration camp took over an hour to warm up to us because they found out we were Americans and they believe our government really put them in the position they currently are facing. The “economic migrant” term being spouted off by political leaders is bullshit. No one wants to go through what these people are going through. Many of them have no other choice for survival.
I’ll leave you with the above image from the 1919 documentary on the Armenian Genocide and spare you any of the images of the children. In this still, you can see several Armenian girls who were crucified naked. Look at this and let me know if you would have told them that it was better to stay so they could “fight for their beliefs and their country.” And with the history of America as a migrant population, I wonder how many people with intolerant views of refugees were actually descendants of historic refugee populations who entered the United States for a chance to live a better, peaceful life.
-Jamie
