Further Pondering of Syrian Refugees
As issues to ponder, this Syrian Refugee debate is a dilly. Bill Maher had this to say recently:
““If you are in this religion, you probably do have values that are at odds. This is what liberals do not want to recognize. You may be from a country—as there are many, many Muslim countries—that either have Sharia law or want Sharia law. Those values are not our values.”
It seems, in general, that a lot of Americans are frustrated with their own economic or personal life in various aspects, and feel their situation would be better if so many ‘immigrants’ were not ‘amongst us’. They are tired of ‘other’ groups of almost any kind, competing against them for jobs, rights, and power—annoyed and whining about it when these groups protest any injustices. Every time some ‘group’, of most any kind, gets rights that others already have, that is seen as decreasing the quality of life for those who already have such rights, or have a better environment in which to live. Interestingly, the one group who came out of nowhere to achieve an equal right, was about the last group most anyone would have predicted to actually gain public support for them to get such a right. Perhaps sexual preferences is the one area where people feel less threatened by diversity. Which is not to say we do not still have others who are apoplectic about sexual diversity.
But when it comes to ethnicity and religion, that is another story and, another festering time bomb. Bill Maher hits it on the head when he says, regarding the Muslim Religion, that “those are not our values”. It seems straight forward enough: If the Muslim Religion states that those who kill non Muslims get to go to Heaven and party with virgins, then this is beyond the pale to our values. And of course it is. It is about on par with the Christian Bible text which states if a man has sex with an animal, both the man AND THE ANIMAL must be killed. Or if a child disobeys a parent the child should be stoned. And on and on it goes in both religious scripts—Muslim and Christian. But one could protest “How many Christians really practice these absurd biblical commandments?” So it then becomes a numbers game. The real problem with the Muslim world is that violence becomes the answer to just about every conflict. We are wrestling with the same addiction in the U.S. where violence is way too often the preferred solution. ’Stand your ground and give tit for tat,” preferably a lot more tit. No,not that kind of tit. If some crazed foreign cabal kills 50 of us, we respond and kill hundreds of them, turn their community into ruble, and send millions scampering to refugee camps. And what has all this violence gained us or them? More violence. When Obama tries to break the cycle of violence a lot of people call him weak. Most of these Trumpity warmongers would never themselves be caught within missile distance of these conflicts they endorse. Nor are they willing to themselves sacrifice financially for the battles they wish their country to engage in. This all seems a tad short of real bravery.
Maher’s reasoning here is patently unfair to Syrian refugees.. Should anyone allow into their country those whose religion endorsed burning witches at the stake? Or allowed racial hangings, or was one of the last stalwarts of slavery? Ok, that’s history not the present. But then again, our ‘Christian’ country (even though our forefathers, including Washington and Jefferson adamantly stated we were not a ‘Christian’ country”). Back then separation of Church and State was a big deal. The colonies had about enough of ‘Puritan’ type governments in which non believers were persecuted.
It is important to understand that while some strong Christians in this country had slaves or engaged in hangings the vast majority did not. That is the nature of all major religions. The adherents of each religion sort of pick and choose which parts of their scripture to believe and follow. It would be difficult to pretend we have a pure religion in which everyone talks and acts like Jesus. Hardly. When listening to the recent Republican debates no one would one think we were hearing advice from Jesus himself. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this example is by no means restricted to the Republicans. It only stands out because they are the ones who wrap themselves in fundamentalist religion the most.
Let’s try this ‘culture’ thing in reverse. Let’ say Donald Trump becomes President and goes after all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. All these people, whether it be for the same reasons he goes after those he ‘debates’ against, or for cultural, religious, or ethnic reasons of various sorts—these people start rioting in the streets, and massive battles begin to occur across the country. Various groups, for various reasons, battle to gain political control of our country. Let’s say the local police lose control across the country, all kinds of residents flee the country and end up in refugee camps. Now let’s say Switzerland, a nice calm country, who I don’t think has ever bothered any other nation in history, agrees to accept 5000 of these American refugees, maybe you and I are among the refugees.
I think it is a safe bet that many of the Swiss people would be irate. After all, we come from a country whose ‘values’ are different than in Switzerland. Americans have one of the highest murder rates per capita of any modern industrialized country. Not only that, but our country has invaded over 70 other countries since our inception as a country. In the last 20 years we have invaded 33 countries. We have bombed, invaded, or occupied 14 Muslim countries in 30 years. We have been at war 93% of time in our history. We are not, however the worst here—the British have invaded 90% of the world’s countries in it’s history. Real unemployment today in America is around 10%, while 43% don’t earn enough money to qualify for paying any federal income tax, etc.
‘What kind of rabble razing rift raft are we being asked to allow in our nation of Switzerland? These are some kind of radical Christian fanatics.” Of course you and I, if we were among the refugees, haven’t murdered anyone, we haven’t personally been the reason for all the attacks on other countries, we are not unemployed, we pay income tax, etc. But it would be to no avail, many in Switzerland would not want to have mercy on us.
When any refugee anywhere is considered for sanctuary in another country it is only that particular person’s behavior which counts. That is why it takes 18 months to 3 years before a refugee is admitted to this country. Over this period of time past history, to the extent there is much, and their behavior since a refugee are the determining factors. Donald Trump no more represents the personal behavior and attitudes of everyone in this country than ‘killing infidels as a pathway to Heaven’ represents the life style of most Muslims.
This is not an easy path of reasoning to use since some will say, “If you don’t like it here in America, just leave.” Of course I do like it here in America or I would leave. I have no economic or family restraints. The things I don’t like about America are not really part of my ‘little world’.
Everyone deserves individual consideration when they apply for something. Aren’t stats important? Yes they are, and as soon as there are any stats which support the notion that refugees have been known to commit terrorist acts against the country which accepts them, I will decide we better not accept refugees anymore. It is, in some sort of odd way, rather contradictory to be rabidly against ISIS and yet have so little mercy for those very people where ISIS activity resulted in their being refugees.
More and more people globally are now beginning to ignore organized religious sects. They don’t, for the most part wage war against them, nor do they lose any belief in God—they just seek ethics and justice elsewhere. The first question I would ask a prospective refugee is whether they try to live the Golden Rule. It just seems to me that to the extent we live our lives according to the Golden Rule, we qualify for any kind of heaven in any kind of major religion. In other words, if more American people just became GoldenRulites, we would have a better society—live our lives like Jesus lived his, not get so wrapped up in selected scripture, or concentrate on religious rituals, or require ornate glittering cathedrals to feel religious, or think we can sin as long as we go to confession, and think we are actually being ethical with family values—a mentality which clearly states it is alright to consider our own family or friend or nation etc. to be more important than others. The Golden Rule does not state: ‘do unto your family, friends, and country as you would have them do unto you’. No one can, with a straight face, claim Jesus would ever approve of some kids having better schools than others by using property tax as the means to fund education, to let millions of people work jobs paying them less than living wages, to tolerate a economic system in which 2-5% of citizens are permitted to accumulate 90% of the wealth, or do not provide all citizens with good health care.
I like Obama’s approach to ISIS: Show mercy to the immediate victims. Demand that others play a major role in fighting against ISIS. Demand that Muslims, who suffer the most casualties from ISIS members, actually lead the battle against ISIS. That we will support all efforts to eliminate ISIS but we will not lead by ourselves and by doing so, make our citizens the major target of their terroristic attacks. McCain, the Bushes, the Cheneys, the Rumsfelds, and all the evangelicals want us to carry the ball virtually alone via essentially invading, turning country after country into ruble, then tire of it, declare victory, withdraw, and leave behind permanent chaos with various thug groups taking turns controlling differing neighborhoods.
Above all we should not perpetuate violence as a means of solving conflict, with us doing all the violence and suppression——then declare that the victims of violence deserve no kindness. We certainly never said, that since Hitler and his henchmen created awful crimes against humanity, we would never allow any Germans, in dire need, to be granted asylum. The Golden Rule is always the best measure of ethical behavior. “Hard to dislike those who like you, isn’t it?. There’s the beginning of a peace plan.” Unknown This is not to suggest we start liking ISIS. It does, however make clear that we would not make all blacks, for example, our enemy because some blacks do bad things. Of course we can substitute blacks with any other diverse group. We would do well to remember that ISIS can only thrive in countries where a vast number of people struggle in urban, suburban, or rural ghettoes, not too dissimilar from those found in many such American ghettoes. Most of us more affluent never really have much contact with these ghettoes—-we are purposely gated off from them, rarely, if ever, going anywhere near them.
There is nothing new here. If someone moves next door to us from a ghetto, we are edgy about it. Of course we are, we know what kind of people can be found in any ghetto. But of course maybe that is why these new neighbors moved to a better community. It is certainly unethical to pre judge anyone in the absence of any evidence. It is certainly unethical to feel no one should be allowed to escape from a ghetto. To be ethical will always involve risks. The least we can do is to be kind and get to know the new neighbors before we decide we don’t want them as neighbors. The same with refugees, we are obligated to get to know them better—like for 18 months to 3 years—before we let them move into our country. Hey, maybe before moving to a better neighborhood from a bad neighborhood it might be a good idea to have some scrutiny before the move is permitted. I think, given a choice, I would rather have a family of refugees living next door before some gangbanger from an American ghetto. I also think I am now done with this topic. Of course, in the back of my mind I can still hear my high school chemistry teacher, Harry Repp, saying to me “see what happens when you think.” He has a point, but I reckon it still best that we all keep on thinking. Not feeling—but thinking. Thinking is always superior to feeling.
