We’ve said this before, but every day there are stories after stories after stories about the “Iraqi Refugee Crisis.” This is being driven by leftists, like those at the United Nations, for two reasons. The first is to bash Bush; the second is to convince the public to bring tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands, if they could) of Iraqi refugees here this minute. But, they are not giving you all the facts.
Here is a report of a press conference at the United Nations two days ago. And, here are a few sentences that particularly caught my eye to demonstrate how the facts are conviently twisted to promote the UN agenda.
Of particular concern were the serious difficulties of women, who made up a large portion of the refugee population, including many women heads of households, single women, women with children and women without male support, she went on. There had been a resurgence of problems, such as “weekend marriages”, in which young girls in a family were made available for traditional marriage ceremonies for a weekend to men willing to pay for such a ceremony. A divorce was then arranged at the end of the weekend. Such an arrangement was not labelled as prostitution, but as marriage, although in reality it was “survival sex”. That protection issue also needed to be addressed.
First, as we reported previously the majority of refugees (73%) in Syria are men between the ages of 18 and 50. Gee, now why do you think men in that age range dashed over to Syria in large numbers in late 2006. Could it have anything to do with the surge? Did they leave their wives home in dangerous Iraq?
And, then the UN won’t tell you that this Muslim (mostly Shiite) practice called Muta, or “weekend marriages,” is a centuries old practice supposedly sanctioned by Mohammed himself so that widows could make a little extra money. Deplorable for any reason, still the UN wants you to think this has sprung up as a direct outgrowth of the war in Iraq and the supposed dire circumstances in which the refugees live. The spinners at the UN just can’t bring themselves to mention cultural practices in Islam that might be seen as undesireable in western eyes.
Instead it’s always America’s fault. Everything fits this little template: America/Bush bad, Middle East/Muslims good.