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Even members of Congress are now recognizing it’s time to wake up and smell the jihad and reconsider our immigration policies with regard to the Islamic world. And not a moment too soon.
Word trickled out this week that the Obama administration plans to admit four times the number of refugees from Syria as we have in the past. This has quite naturally raised fears that among these refugees will be Muslim jihadists who mean us harm.
Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said yesterday it would be a “huge mistake” to admit these refugees into the United States, for the simple reason that it is impossible to vet them all and make any kind of realistic assessment as to which of them might pose a threat to our national security.
Despite assurances from representatives of DHS that these refugees would be given “the most rigorous screening,” FBI Assistant Director Michael Steinbach said that’s impossible. There are simply no available law enforcement databases that would have any useful information on past criminal or jihadi activity on the part of these would-be refugees.
Said Steinbech, “You have to have information to vet. Databases don’t [have] the information on those individuals, and that’s the concern…[T]he databases won’t have the information we need. You are talking about a country that is a failed state, that does not have any infrastructure so to speak. So all the data sets, the police, the intel services, that you would normally go to and seek that information, don’t exist.”
If America’s security is our number one priority, it clearly would be disastrous to admit even a single Muslim refugee from Syria or anywhere else who cannot be properly vetted. Better to admit none at all than even one who will threaten the lives of innocent Americans.
Italy is in a full-fledged panic, as ISIS has announced its intention to flood the European zone with 500,000 Muslim refugees, among whom would be untold numbers of jihadi warriors in disguise. It’s a perfectly realistic plot: last year alone, 170,000 refugees reached the shores of Italy by boat.
Now Americans are a compassionate people because we are a Christian people. What should our response be to the millions of displaced Syrian Muslims who have been forced out of their homes by fellow Muslims?
Speaking just for myself, here’s an idea:
If President Obama and former President Bush are right, that Islam is a wonderful religion of peace, then each of the other 56 Muslim nations around the world ought to be havens of tranquility and stability. Let’s use our resources to help Syrian Muslims find a home in one or more of these other nations which are guided by the “religion of peace.”
Meanwhile, we, as a Christian nation, should make it a priority to open our shores to Christian refugees who are fleeing these war-torn Muslim countries because it is no longer safe to be a Christ-follower in these lands. Let’s let the Muslim nations of the world take in the Muslim refugees, while the Christian nations of the world take in the Christian refugees. That way, everyone can live in a society which shares their fundamental cultural, moral and spiritual values.
Everyone will be happier, and America certainly will be safer. It may be an idea whose time has come.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
Bryan Fischer is the host of the daily ‘Focal Point’ radio talk program on AFR Talk, a division of the American Family Association. ‘Focal Point’ airs live from 1-3 pm Central Time, and is also simulcast on the AFA Channel, which can be seen on the Sky Angel network.