Christian refugees and Muslim refugees

While they make up 10 percent of the population, and are at far greater risk than anyone, Christians represent less than three percent of all refugees admitted to the USA from Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama said suggestions that the US impose a religious test on Syrian refugees are “shameful” and un-American, lashing out at Republican presidential hopefuls, including Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, who have called for accepting Christians from the region rather than Muslims. He said those in the Obama administration “pretend there is no religious aspect to this”.

He said only by finding a political solution to the war in Syria could the chaos be ended and IS stifled, and that there was finally agreement on this course. “No terrorist should be able to take advantage of the refugee process to threaten the United States”.

“On the other hand Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them”. As Donald Trump states that mosques should be shut down and that 11 million immigrants should be “rounded up” at a rate of 15,000 per day and dropped off deep in Mexico, it does not echo the compassion of Christ in any way whatsoever.

While McCain said he agrees refugee admissions should be paused until law enforcement and intelligence officials can sign off on the vetting process, he said more emphasis should be placed on President Obama’s insistence that his strategy against ISIS is working. “We don’t add religious tests to our compassion”, he said.

“People understand the plight of those fleeing the Middle East. But they also want basic assurances for the safety of this country”, Ryan said from the House floor.

“But when bringing refugees to our shores, the US government must put the security of Arkansans and all Americans first”.

Today, we face new challenges as we answer the Gospel call to welcome the stranger and care for the vulnerable.

But, it turns out, Syrian refugees’ religion may actually already play a part in whether or not they’re allowed into the United States, according to the Center for Security Policy (CSP), which may show a bias against Christians. “We need to be resolute as it relates to that”. (America should have let in more Jewish refugees during the Second World War; that wouldn’t have meant turning away Thomas Mann.) And it is a brutal insult to Syrians who have gone through four and half years of carnage to say that the fact that they are Sunnis gives them a few sort of immunity from ISIS or from the Assad regime.

A third Democratic candidate, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, has called for expanding to 65,000 the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the country. In September, Rubio said he didn’t trust the president’s military strategy. If Arab Christians move en masse to Europe and the USA, the odds of them returning even to a peaceful Syria will diminish. Because the UN’s refugee camps, run by the high commissioner for refugees, are nearly entirely Muslim and Christians do not feel safe in them.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit who sits on the U.S. Commission on worldwide Religious Freedom – an independent government commission – said from his work on the ground, the role of religion can get blended in with so many other factors.