At a news conference Monday at the summit in Antalya, Turkey, of the Group of 20 major and emerging economic powers, Obama denounced those who say America should “just admit the Christians but not the Muslims” fleeing war-torn Syria. “That’s shameful,” he declared. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
However, for at-risk religious minorities in Syria and Iraq, this is not simply a question of compassion; it is a matter of life or death. The U.S. may not impose religious tests, but the Islamic State terrorist group does. Muslims who remain under the oppressive rule of the caliphate might suffer, but Yazidis, Assyrian Christians and other indigenous religious minorities are marked for extermination, with women and children sold into sex slavery.
Obama would do well to familiarize himself with the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It defines genocide as“acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” ISIL might be killing individual Muslims, but it is not trying to destroy the Islamic faith. It is, however, seeking out members of small, historically rooted religious populations, many of whom have lived peacefully in that part of the world for centuries before Islam existed. ISIL is not only annihilating them; its fighters proudly post videos of their atrocities on YouTube.
There are practical reasons to favor non-Muslim refugees as well. FBI Director James Comey said last month that it would be more challenging to prevent jihadist terrorist infiltration among the tens of thousands of Syrians the Obama administration is seeking to bring to the USA. The attacks in Paris on Friday, believed to have been conducted in part by a man posing as a refugee, demonstrate the deadly consequences of this irresponsible policy. Singling out proven non-Muslims for easier admission reduces the chances that those allowed inside our borders will be radical Islamist infiltrators. It is not only the ethical thing to do, but it also better safeguards American security.
Some members of Congress are already taking action. Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that would require the State Department to “expedite the processing of refugee admissions applications" for religious groups threatened by ISIL. The bill has 42 co-sponsors from both political parties. Imagine if similar legislation had passed in the 1930s, when Jews and others facing religious and ethnic persecution in Nazi Germany were being turned away from America and sent back to face near certain death. When the reality of the Holocaust was exposed, Americans felt ashamed they did not do more to help sooner. Today, we already know that genocide is under way in the areas ISIL controls, so we cannot claim ignorance.
There are many other places for displaced Muslims to find sanctuary, especially countries in the region that have been unwilling to bear their fair share of the refugee burden. These countries — such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, among others — argue that they cannot admit refugees because terrorists could be hiding among them. Tell that to France. Perhaps instead of delivering snobbish lectures on Americanism, Obama should use his position of leadership to see to it that the refugee burden is shared equally in the region. Directing Muslim refugees to Muslim host countries will free up resources for threatened non-Muslim minorities to find safety in the more inclusive, more welcoming, religiously free United States. Despite what Obama thinks, that is a lot more American than watching these defenseless people be shot down in ditches by ISIL simply because they do not bow to Allah.
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James S. Robbins writes weekly for USA TODAY and is the author of The Real Custer: From Boy General to Tragic Hero. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/17/save-persecuted-religious-minorities-first-syria-conflict-column/75930816/
Photo : A Syrian refugee family after arriving on Lesbos, Greece, on Nov. 17, 2015. (Photo: Bulent Kilic, AFP/Getty Images)