In a powerful OpEd written by The NY Times Editorial Board, the numbers are painful. Nearly 12 million Syrians have left their homes. Of those 12 million, nearly half are children. And another point is that these people fleeing their homes aren't all Muslim. Furthermore, many of these refugees are Christian as well. America is so caught up in its fear of Islamic terrorists, that suddenly any refugee from an Islamic or Middle-Eastern country can be a possible threat due to their radical beliefs. The terms Muslim, Syrian, and terrorist have somehow become misconstrued and synonymous with one another.
The issue of Syrian refugees is far too complex to be boiled down to "tag em and bag em," even though the American people seem to be leaning toward that terrifyingly Nazi-esk idea. What everyone needs to remember or learn is that these are people fleeing from BOTH Assad AND ISIS. ISIS has been, and continues to take land from Syria, and Assad's regime has been fighting with all their might to stop them. BloombergView's Editorial Board raises the issue of government sponsored 'barrel bombs.'
Assad wants to stop ISIS so much, that he's willing to use military helicopters to drop barrel bombs, a weapon internationally recognized as illegal and inhumane due to their inaccurate and indiscriminate nature, on neighborhoods where a single ISIS member may be suspected of hiding. Meanwhile, anyone who isn't with ISIS is against them. This leaves us with a huge majority of people who are stuck between ISIS's guns and Assad's barrel bombs, and they're only truly safe choice is to run.
Ignoring all of this background on the refugees, one must acknowledge the fact that the process to be accepted into America as a refugee is a two year long, document-heavy process. Contrary to popular belief, America's borders are already very closed off already in terms of the difficulty that exists to enter the country as a legal refugee. Many may argue that terrorists can still enter America under the guise as a refugee after the attacks in Paris and because of 8 people who were found to be terrorists impersonating refugees in Morocco. America is safer in the sense that, as a country that is developed and not connected to the land mass of the refugees, it can get away with a more detailed, longer vetting process. Regardless, it's leagues easier to get a visa as a tourist entering the US, and if terrorists are attempting to enter this country to do an attack, why would they ever go through a 2 year long process to stay in America for an extended period of time?
As I keep reading article after article about people who are trying to stop the "Islamization of America" or those who wish to have a "database of Muslims," I keep coming to the conclusion that I have been lied to. I was told America was a land of freedom and opportunity all my life, and the closer I look, the less I believe it.
I've worked with Middle-Eastern refugees (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.) in a 6-week program called RYSA, and there wasn't a single child or adult there who thought America was just some place to go. They worked their asses off to get here, and they love America for it's safety. These people appreciate and love our country, and all we are planning to do is to alienate them and make them feel like they're intruders to our great nation of "safety". America has plenty of problems to address, and denying people who need help, a safe country to live in, and a second shot at their life should be at the bottom of the list. By the logic getting spread around recently, we're better off letting the refugees figure out what they should do on their own and not accept them into our country if there could be even one person who may possibly be a terrorist out of 100,000; even if that 100,000 need a country to escape to otherwise they'll be killed.