Journalism vs. the internet

Check out this article on American Thinker yesterday.   Although it has nothing to do with Refugee Resettlement per say, it has everything to do with it.    Author Randall Hoven begins with a quote from longtime journalist Marvin Kalb in which Kalb claims the internet will damage journalism’s ability to perform professionally.    Hoven then goes on to list 62 cases of journalistic malfeasance, many of which were exposed by people (non-journalists!) on the internet.

Refugee Resettlement Watch has been up since July 1 and we have had thousands of visitors.   And, as far as we know, there is no other source for information about how this program works (other than the government’s own).     It appears that no journalist ever goes beyond the “Somalis see first snow!” type of story.    We hope we are helping Americans have a better understanding of this community-changing program of the federal government.    Damaging journalism?  My foot!

Macon’s Muslim Mayor

It looks like Imam Yahya Hendi has his first(?) Muslim Mayor.   If you recall last week we wrote that Hendi, speaking to an audience in Saudi Arabia, predicted that the US would have 30 Muslim Mayors by the year 2015.   Yesterday I received this news from Always on Watch who directed me to the Neocon Command Center for this story.

MACON, Ga. — Some Macon residents have called for demonstrations and boycotts after the mayor of the central Georgia city formally reached out to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with a declaration of solidarity.

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He (the mayor) announced in February that he had converted to Islam and was working to legally change his name to Hakim Mansour Ellis. Ellis, who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

I went back and checked my stats on how many refugees have been resettled in Georgia since 1983.    Georgia has a substantial refugee population.  Now, I’m not saying this got Mayor Ellis elected but it’s something to think about.    From 1983 to 2004,  48,817  refugees have been resettled there,  9,365 of those are from 5 primarily Muslim countries of Africa.    Also, it came to our attention in Hagerstown that at least  one of our Somali refugees moved to Georgia to be with her kind of folks.   Others of our Somalis moved to the Pacific Northwest where other Somalis are congregating.

You know this brings me to something I’ve been pondering.   Why is it that no one would ever call the Somalis racist for moving to where lots of other Somalis are (and away from us folks who are a differant color and religion)?  However, if we said we wanted to live with people who have our American culture, we would be racist, xenophobic, bigoted and unenlightened hate mongers.

Anyway, I  am getting away from my story.    According to Heidi Boas* in her lengthy 2007 paper entitled, “The New Face of America’s Refugees:  African Refugee Resettlement to the United States:” 

….several of the individuals interviewed for this paper identified the Congressional Black Caucus as one of the most influential groups advocating over the past decade for increased African refugee resettlement to the United States.

I guess what I’m getting around to is that refugee resettlement is more than giving some downtrodden folks a better life, it’s about politics and getting the votes and changing our communities.   It’s about changing America.

*I don’t have this paper on-line but if you are interested, please e-mail us at refugeeresettlementwatch@vigilantfreedom.com 

Can any of you direct me to another city with a Muslim Mayor?   We could keep a running tally and see how well Hendi does with his predictions!

More thoughts on Washington Times “No betrayals”

A few days ago we did a post on a Washington Times editorial in support of HR 2265 and S 1651 and said we would have more thoughts later.   I’m slow on my feet, so after a few days of thinking about it, here are my thoughts.    I am madder than hell.  

These bills introduced by among others, Senator Kennedy, do literally open the floodgates for Iraqi refugees to enter the United States—NOW before the war is over!   So, I ask the Washington Times, usually supportive of our military, if they support tens of thousands* of Muslim Iraqis entering the US while our sons and daughters are dying to give them a free country?  The whole process will signal to our military that they are not doing the job of protecting those Iraqis who are helping us.   Those bills undermine the surge.  So who is betraying whom?

How are you going to feel when Muslim Iraqi refugees  live next door on welfare in Harrisonburg, VA,  Warren, MI, Lincoln, NB, or Nashville, TN while you are burying your child,  wife, husband, mother or father?

There may indeed be some Iraqis who need special protection for the work they have done.  They can be supported and protected in the region and return home when the country is stabilized.  There may also be some very serious cases where specific Iraqis and their immediate families would be brought to the US to keep them safe, but that can be done under existing authority.

Iraqi Christians are a whole differant story, but our government leaders and the leftwing organizations promoting this flood of refugees will never put the Christians at the head of the line.

Finally, I have no sympathy for the whining governments of Iran, Syria, Jordan etc. (and their enablers in the worldwide refugee organizations) who are now stuck with 2 million (by some estimates)  refugees from Iraq.  If those countries helped stabilize Iraq, instead of  helping destablize it, those Iraqis could go home.

* The Washington Times has apparently not read the bills or they wouldn’t be asking for the numbers to be even larger.

Please read the Center for Vigilant Freedom analysis of HR2265 and S1651 here.

Cause for Concern

RRW welcomes our guest author “a church planting missionary”: 

I recognize the well intentioned work of ten agencies (Non-Governmental Organizations, or, NGO’s) which oversee resettlement of refugees and immigrants within the United States. The names and addresses of the U. S. Voluntary Agencies may be found at www.unhcr.org, the web site of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

The motivation of these NGO’s is commendable. They seek to use the resources they have received from donors and government in the most economical way possible in order to accomplish a formidable task. I recognize that most of their efforts are directed towards helping strangers to our land. They assist others, helping them to make their first attempts at understanding our customs and laws. They do this in order that refugees and immigrants ASSIMILATE as quickly as possible and, eventually, become citizens.

However, there has come a challenge facing these not-for-profit volunteer organizations, today, as large numbers of refugees from Iraq, particularly, and certain other countries, are beginning the processes for entry into the country. The challenge facing the NGO’s? Should most of those allowed to come here be Muslim, these are directed by their beliefs to NOT ASSIMILATE into a culture that is not Muslim.

Are the religious organizations among the aforementioned NGO’s aware of this?

One of the most important teachers of Muslims throughout the world – though he is dead – remains Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966). His writings have been widely circulated and one work, “Milestones” (Ma`alim `ala Al-Tariq) and has “been published in well over a thousand editions….” [Religion of Peace: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t, by Robert Spencer (Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2007, p41)]. Spencer notes that Qutb, a “jihad theorist and activist” taught this:

“Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah [the society of unbelievers]. … Islam cannot accept or agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah. …The foremost duty of Islam in this world is to depose Jahiliyyah from the leadership of man, and to take the leadership into its own hands and enforce the particular way of life which is its permanent feature.” [p41]

Are the NGO’s who represent several faith-based organizations of this land being made aware of these teachings? For the sake of the country, are they made aware by anyone at UNHCR or U. S. Department of State, as to whether or not the proposed refugees and immigrants adhere to the teachings of jihad activists?

These teachings are contrary to the intention of helping refugees and immigrants to ASSIMILATE to the American culture and society. These teachings – if they are followed – are meant to destroy the very culture which would nurture them and the people and government that would help them. Certainly NGO’s which are organized for helping people do not wish to undermine the government of this republic.

These jihad teachings – unless they are disavowed outright – would mock the efforts of people as they help others benefit from the exercise of the rights and values we’ve come to enjoy. These are the same rights and values which have made this country great.

The top ten hit parade: Muslim refugees by country of origin

Coming to you from the Refugee Processing Center Report!

 (Muslim Refugees* Admitted to the US for 15 fiscal years up to September 30, 2003 and country of origin)

 10)  Albania    1,233  

  9)  Iran  1,621

  8)  Sudan 1,952

  7)  Sierra Leone  2,510

  6)  Ethiopia  5,639 

  5)  Afghanistan  11,667

  4)  Serbia  14,560

 Now for the top three!

  3)  Iraq  21,760

  2)  Somalia  41,626

  1)  Bosnia/Herzeovina  103,107

* Refugees have access to all forms of public assistance 30 days after arrival in the United States.    Legal permanent residents on the other hand are restricted from welfare for five years.  You can see why a refugee designation is the way to go.