Last year: Group called for reform of Refugee Program for African Muslims

The series that ran this past week in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette has brought to light many new pieces of information that we weren’t aware of.   After a lengthy and powerful explanation the Pipeline News. org and the Militant Islam Monitor came to the following conclusion over a year ago (and long before others of us began looking into the whole issue of refugee resettlement.)  Read the whole document here.    Summary below:

Looking at the totality of the evidence in this matter a number of aspects stand out:

1. In general, American society has made a tremendous effort to accommodate tens of thousands of these Somali refugees and their perceived needs into the mainstream, offering them jobs suitable to their skill level along with housing, social welfare assistance and a cultural support structure.

2. For its part the federal government has expended hundreds of millions of dollars on plucking these people from East Africa, most likely rescuing them from early death. It has taken extraordinary steps to be understanding and accepting of the refugee’s culture and religion.

3. Unfortunately, in large part many of these refugees seem to have less than total devotion to the idea of actually becoming Americans as distinct from Somalis who happen to be currently sojourning here.

4. In many cases American hospitality has been repaid with a refusal by the Somalis to integrate into the larger society that hosts them, bringing lawsuits and allying themselves with radical Islamist organizations.

5. In fact many Somali Americans seem be intent on reproducing nothing more than “little Mogadishus” wherever they have been resettled.

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The track record of America’s Somali refugees so far suggests that these people are largely unappreciative of the stunning commitment which has been made to them by the people of the United States.

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We therefore strongly recommend that the U.S. Dept. of State reevaluate the entire refugee program as it applies to both Somalia and also to other African Muslim countries.

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What has been demonstrated so far is that – for whatever reasons be they cultural or religious – the Somali refugees who have been granted asylum here, are unwilling to live as full citizens, demonstrating a singular lack of commitment to making the necessary accommodations that are required to live in a pluralist, secular Western society.

Linked in the above document is a reference to a booklet on how to understand Muslim refugees.  I came across this once before but had forgotten about it.  It is worth looking at.

Pro Bono American lawyers working in Iraq

I came across this the other day and don’t know its full import, but throw this out to those of you following the Iraqi refugee issue.   I was surprised to see such a large effort going on behind the scenes to get Iraqis here (and it doesn’t sound like they are focusing on the truly persecuted Christians!).   My atennae went up when these immigration lawyers called their work a “paradigm shift in refugee resettlement.”

The violent complexity that is Iraq includes professionals now fleeing their country in fear of tormentors who consider the assistance they gave American lawyers and other U.S. government officials in Baghdad during the trial of Saddam Hussein to be a holy crime, akin to that of collaborating with Christian crusaders of centuries past.

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Until the cause of the tormented became the pro bono passion of attorneys Eric A. Blinderman of New York and Christopher Nugent of Washington, D.C., these Iraqi refugees were left to the common cruelties of the Middle East and a painfully slow response to their plight from the U.S. government.

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“If I may say so, we’ve created a paradigm shift in refugee resettlement,” said Mr. Nugent, 40, senior counsel with Holland & Knight’s community services team and a veteran immigration lawyer.

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By a combination of law and custom, he explained, refugees are not allowed to have attorneys present during their multiple interviews before a battery of officials, beginning with United Nations agencies and ending up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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“But we send correspondence, and it’s accepted,” said Mr. Nugent. “We’re not going to insist on our presence at interviews, but we are accepted as counsel of record. We prepare our clients for these interviews.”

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Mr. Nugent and Mr. Blinderman have, in turn, recruited a total of 100 lawyers from their respective firms to aid those trying to escape Iraq, and those detained by authorities in neighboring states where torture is common – Syria, Jordan and Egypt in particular.

As you read down the article you will see they also praise the Kennedy (Bring More Iraqis to American Sooner Than Later) bill that was likely signed into law by President Bush this week attached to the Defense Authorization bill.  *Note:  As of noon time (12/28), Fox News is reporting that Bush will veto the Defense Authorization Bill.

And, finally this sealed my suspicion that maybe this wasn’t such a good thing.  Referring to an Iraqi translator working for the lawyers, Blinderman is quoted:

Ibrahim’s salary, said Mr. Blinderman, is provided by an anonymous donor.

Who?  The State Department?  Volags?  CAIR?  Some Islamic “charity”?   Refugees International?  Ted Kennedy? The Saudis?  Grover Norquist or David Keene?    Actually I’m getting silly, but why can’t we know?   

Excuses, Excuses!

Yesterday a reader alerted us to an error I had made in a link.   I really appreciate the heads up on it.   So, for all of you who wanted to see what the American Congress for Truth was saying about Shelbyville go to our post here and you will find the correct link.

So, here is my excuse:  Judy and I do this as volunteers and squeeze it into the rest of our busy lives; consequently we screw-up occasionally in our desire to get something out to you quickly.   We beg you to correct us when you see errors and don’t hesitate to send us stuff we may have missed.

As a matter of fact, a reporter asked me just this week what motivates us to work on this every day for no pay (he didn’t say those last few words but that was behind the question).    Speaking for me, and I think for Judy, we do this because we believe that the only way for citizens to have some say in the future of their communities is for them to be fully armed with facts.   Those facts have been woefully unavailable since the beginning of the Refugee Resettlement program in the early 1980s.   We hope we are providing a good service to folks concerned about what they see happening to their cities and towns regarding this aspect of the gigantic immigration debate going on in America.