Month: September 2008

Did U.S. disarm Christians in Iraq?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

FrontPage Magazine interviews William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition. We’ve posted on Murray and his group’s work with Iraqi Christian refugees before, here, here and here. He summarizes the situation of these refugees thusly:

American political correctness and the Bush Administration’s fear of Islamic backlash have caused the greatest “urban refugee” crisis in history. More than half of the Christian population has been forced to flee their homes in Iraq because of Islamic violence against them. Their churches have been burned and bombed. The official position of the Administration has been that “Coalition Forces assisting the Christians would cause them to be identified with the United States and have even more problems.” As a result they receive no assistance in defending themselves at all. Immediately after the American invasion of Iraq, the Christian militias were disarmed. They were the only militias to be disarmed. American forces allowed both the Sunnis and Shiites to keep their armed militias. Christians first fled from Baghdad to the Nineveh Plains, and then to Jordan and Syria. In Jordan and Syria the American embassies told Iraqi refugees to go to the United Nations because their plight “was not an American problem.” Excuse me? 

Meanwhile the official position of the State Department under Condi Rice is that Christians are harassed by “criminal elements” in Iraq and that no persecution exists. That attitude has caused even greater persecution and led our embassies and other nations to be unhelpful.

The interviewer, Jamie Glazov, asks why Christian militias were disarmed. Murray answers:

Those of us who have questioned the State Department on the disarming of the Christian militias have received mixed answers. However, the favorite answer seems to be that allowing Christians to bear arms in Iraq would give the impression that the United States was leading a “Christian crusade,” and thus it was better for our image to allow the slaughter of Christians.

I have read many times that Christians are the only ones in Iraq who do not have their own armed militias, and that is one reason that have been attacked so much. I had gathered that they had never had militias, without that being specified. I’ve certainly never heard this claim before and I can’t find any reference to it elsewhere. If it’s true, it’s beyond shocking, but I have my doubts.

Interestingly, in looking for information on this question I found a recent article on Islam Online (of all places) called Iraq’s Christian Militias — meaning recently formed ones. (An AFP story on the new Christian militias is here.)

MOSUL — Christians in Iraq have united and formed new militias to protect themselves against what they describe as targeting by Muslim extremists in northern Iraq.

“During five years we were victims of the general violence in Iraq but mainly from violence carried by Islamic extremists who want us to follow their religious behaviors, though we are from a different culture and belief,” Priest Michel Youssef, militias supporter in Mosul, told IslamOnline.net.

Few armed Christians started patrolling their areas last year but now there are 250 of them with official approval from the US army base in Mosul.

Armed with heavy machine guns and assault rifles, they receive salaries of around US $250 and are commanded by Father Yusuf Yohannes.

“The idea to form militias was the only way to protect our families and friends from attacks because we are tired of waiting an action from the government which is preoccupied with politics and never look after us,” said Youssef.  

 

,,, The idea of taking protection in their own hands is very appealing to Christians.

“Our new militias are the start of a possible new life for Christians in Iraq,” believes Annuar, the primary school teacher.

There’s no reference to previous militias here. I’m not sure that William Murray is the most reliable of sources. Look at this statement:

Our government, that is the Bush Administration, does not want the financial and moral obligations that come with the actual declaration of refugee status. As a result none of the refugees, Christian or otherwise, are considered refugees officially by our government. There has been a special effort to make sure that Christians who have fled Iraq are not given any priority treatment despite the fact that they represented a far larger percentage of those who fled compared to their actual percentage of the population.

Of course we consider them refugees. We just let the UN have charge of them. It is true that we give no priority to Christians; we’ve commented on that many times. Murray does not come across as clear and knowledgeable. His group does excellent humanitarian work, and maybe that’s what he should stick to.

I’ll try to track down more information about the disarming of the Christian militias and whether they ever existed before.

The Somali/Swift controversy as seen by a Saudi writer

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A further note:  Author Jawher refers to a religious battle going on in the midwest, here is a discussion of the escalating battle from an ex-Muslim.

This supercilious article in the Saudi Gazette* made me laugh.  Imagine someone in Saudi Arabia lecturing us about religious freedom.    This is the country where your Bible is confiscated upon landing, or if you are a Jew you can’t even set foot there.   (Hat tip: Blulitespecial)

Author, Sabria S. Jawher, begins with this to set the tone:

A religious battle – nothing to do with terrorism or the invasion of American troops in a Muslim country – is going on in the heartland of the United States. Central Nebraska to be specific. The land of corn, pickup trucks and evangelical Christians.

Then she (I am assuming it’s a ‘she’) discusses past problems with Somalis (small cultural eruptions) and implies the Swift/Somali issue will eventually blow over as these other incidentts have,  but ends with another whack at us:

These immigrants have been at the center of controversy before. Somali taxi drivers have refused to take passengers possessing or being under the influence of alcohol or have a dog with them. With the exception of rather loud opinions of American conservative extremists, these small cultural and religious eruptions settled down quietly.

We are all just a bunch of yahoo nutjobs who are imagining things:

The problem in the United States is two-fold: Islam has become so politicized that many people can no longer view the duties of a Muslim as a religious issue, but one of Muslims attempting to change the landscape of a Christian nation through force. Many conservatives have gone so far as to label the wants and needs of Muslims as some sort of silent jihad.

She then appears to sound reasonable but when you consider the complete lack of any religious freedom in the Kingdom, you can only shake your head, laugh, and ask who is she kidding!   This is the good cop/bad cop strategy to attempt to show us that they, enlightened Saudis, are reasonable and modern, unlike us conservative, pick-up truck driving, evangelical Christians.

The other problem is the refusal of some Muslim immigrants to assimilate into Western society. We in Saudi Arabia ask our expatriate workers to respect our customs, traditions and religion while they are guests here. The same could be said for Muslims choosing to live in the United States. That doesn’t mean they are not entitled to praying five times a day. Of course they have that right. And every employer who respects freedom of religion should find a compromise to accommodate Muslims during work hours. But some Muslims take their beliefs to the extreme. What works in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Somalia doesn’t necessarily work in the West, and special considerations must be addressed. If you choose to be a taxi driver, then you have to take passengers under the influence of alcohol safely home.

You might have the urge to slap her silly, but just laugh!

* The Saudi Gazette says of itself:

The Saudi Gazette is one of the largest, and most read newspapers in Saudi Arabia. For more than 30 years, The Gazette has been committed to delivering readers the news and information they rely on in a format they enjoy. 

For all of our coverage of the Somali/Swift controversy go here.

Violence increases in Grand Island between Somali and Sudanese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Here is another story about the violence in the apartment complex housing African immigrants in Grand Island.

The apartments may look quiet during the day, but residents say come dark, they’re a dangerous place to be.

 

Now, before you read this post, please go back and first read about what is happening in Greece (here) where these two longtime African enemies are slaughtering each other with machetes on the streets of Athens.    And, just think about what we have imported.

Apparently the mostly Christian (according to news accounts) Sudanese are in an apartment complex just across a parking lot from the building housing the Muslim Somalis and violence has been on the rise ever since the tensions escalated at the Swift & Co plant in that town.  From the Grand Island Independent:

Two group attacks were reported in the past week in two neighboring east Grand Island apartment complexes in what appears to be a case of retaliatory violence.

In the first, a Somali man reported being beaten Thursday morning by a group of Sudanese men outside his apartment on Yund Street.

In the second, a Sudanese man reported being beaten Sunday morning by a group of Somali men on the stairs leading up to his apartment on Sutherland Street.

The two assaults were part of more than two dozen calls to those two apartment complexes over the past several days, said Capt. Robert Falldorf of the Grand Island Police Department.

“It’s pretty much been an every-night deal,” Falldorf said.

Falldorf said he doesn’t believe the incidents were related to the ongoing dispute over time for prayer at the JBS Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island.

Kind of coincidental then isn’t it, that the violence is on the rise in the time since the Sudanese refused to go along with the Somalis in their demand for special religious accommodations at Swift.

A report from the local TV station says violence is on the rise since the protests at Swift.

Grand Island police say altercations have increased between Somalians and Sudanese at a G.I. apartment complex since protests began at JBS Swift.

[……] 

Authorities say before the protests, fights between the two groups were much less frequent.

I wish I could find one of those do-gooder speeches at this moment—you know the speeches where we are lectured about how diversity enriches our lives and our communities, and anyone who doesn’t know that is a racist xenophobic hatemonger.    The do-gooders must think that America has some magical power—one step on American soil and a meatpacking job is like a magic wand that will erase centuries of African hatred.

This story thanks to our chief research associate, Blulitespecial, who must be up from his siesta.

Japan to begin refugee resettlement and ‘I would like to meet Somalis’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

One of the many stories that just passed me by (I saw it but wasn’t moved to write about it) is that Japan has agreed to begin a refugee resettlement program.  One of the most generous nations in making financial contributions to humanitarian causes around the world,  Japan has taken very few refugees until now.  They have recently been guilt-tripped into changing their policy on refugees by the UN and other nations.

Behind Tokyo’s shift in its refugee policy is the view spreading in the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that Japan will have to accept more refugees to fulfill its humanitarian responsibility as a member of the international community. In addition, Japan has to increasingly depend on foreign people for labor as the population ages and the birthrate remains low.

Some analysts have voiced concern that the government will select only refugees who are easy to accept in the screening process.

Doesn’t that last make sense to you!   Would you go out of your way to take refugees that are not easy?  Would you purposefully go around picking out the troublemakers and the hard to assimilate.  Well, yes, some countries do.   We do!  

And, so what finally inspired me to write about Japan was this post from an incredibly naive Japanese blogger writing about Somalis in the most simplistic and uninformed way.  The only other reasonable explanation for what he says is that the whole post is a joke.

He wants to meet Somalis and thinks they would get along swimmingly in Japan.  You would think this line in which he jokes about Somalis coming car shopping might have given him a tip.

……second hand car buyers from the Somali region visit Japan and sometimes ask us about Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Hilux. One of the buyers jokingly told me that the rebels would buy these cars and cut off the roof of the car to mount machine guns!

But, no, here is some of this incredible post about Japan welcoming Somalis:

In a nutshell, Japan may seem too far and too different from the Somali region. This is certainly true but there are good things as well. One day if Japanese and Somali meet, we can probably be good friends. Why? This is because Japan is not like typical Western countries where Somalis can get insulted because of their country of origin or religious belief (this is what I hear). Japan has very limited relations with Africa as a whole and there are few Africans in Japan and almost no immigrants. Believe it or not, Africans in general are warmly welcome here. People here will even say to you, ‘Welcome! You travelled all the way from Africa. Thank you for coming!’ This means that there will be no barrier to the initial contact.

Moreover Japan is certainly not a Muslim country but almost all Muslims who visit Japan say Japan is a more Muslim country than any other ‘officially’ Muslim country. This is because of its cleanliness and the way people behave in public places, according to Muslim visitors to Japan. Also most of Japanese people are not familiar with Islam and so do not discriminate against Muslims; they can be curious but do not offend you. Why not come to see it for yourself? I am afraid there is no khat to chew available but there are masjids and Halal food shops in the major cities of Japan, including our city!
We are very far apart but I am one of the few in Japan, thinking of Somali people all the time, hoping others will also know about Somali-related issues! We Japanese and Somalis will meet in the near future!

No doubt, you probably will.    Dear Japan, if this guy is serious, and represents the thinking of the Japanese people, before you do meet, use our search function and type in the word ‘Somali’ and know what you are getting into.

Note to readers, when you visit this Japanese blog notice this link he has in the upper lefthand corner, entitled “Somali Parliment Chair Fight”.  Makes me wonder if his whole blog post is a spoof!

U.S. attorney general orders asylum for victim of female genital mutilation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

CNN reports:

The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation.

In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled “because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country.”

Calling the rationale “flawed,” Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider.

The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe.

The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home.

Several members of Congress —  Reps. John Conyers, Zoe Lofgren and Sen. Patrick Leahy — had asked Mukasey to look into the matter after the court’s decision last January.

“Female genital mutilation is a gross violation of a woman’s human rights and has traditionally been grounds for the granting of an asylum claim,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, said in the letter.

This is always an easy call for government officials, who find the idea of genital mutilation stomach-turning, as any normal person would. The trouble is that the practice is widespread in certain countries of Africa and the Middle East. Any woman who makes it to America from such a country is therefore likely to get asylum. As with every refugee and asylum question, are we prepared to take all the women who want to come to America from these countries? NGOs and the UN are working in Africa to end the practice, with reported success. (Funny, I don’t hear about them working in the Arab countries of the Middle East. Maybe they wouldn’t get such an easy reception there.) If the members of Congress are really concerned about female genital mutilation, they should be supporting these efforts.

Hat tip to Bluelite Special.