Jihadists don’t much like monks because monks are willing to stand-up for their religion. Note the “no OIC” on this banner—brave, very brave! AP Photo/Khin Maung Win
Syrian Islamist have been attempting to smuggle Muslim extremists into Myanmar, a Syrian Islamist source told NOW.
According to the source, “many attempts have been made to send Jihadists to Myanmar for the sake of our brothers.”
“Contacts with Islamist groups in Pakistan, India and other surrounding countries are being made in order to facilitate their entry into Myanmar.”
The source, however, added that “these attempts have failed.” [so they say—ed]
Speaking to NOW, Salafist Sheikh Bilal al-Masri called on Muslims to attack Buddhists and their interests.
“I decree that every person who can get to a Buddhist should kill him because they are killing our people and the Muslims cannot be blamed for their reaction.”
So why do we care? We care because your local friendly Catholic Charities would like nothing better than to add moreRohingya Muslims from Burma (aka Myanmar) to their diversity-is-beautiful collection of refugees for your multi-culty edification. And, we need to be informed about who we are “welcoming” in the next batch of poor and downtrodden Burmese just yearning for a better life.
This must be refugee-news-story-dump day. Just when I have other things I have to do, and thought I could get away from the computer, along comes one more story that should be posted today (hat tip to a friend from TN).
Evariste Simbananiye has a furnished apartment but prefers squatting on the floor. Photo: Dan Henry
Evariste Simbananiye lives in a fully furnished apartment in Boynton Terrace but prefers squatting, as he did in his native Burundi, to sitting in a chair.
Simbananiye, 64, is among a handful of refugees from at least three countries who live in or near the public housing facility.They’ve been there since 2007, but Boynton residents say some refugees still don’t have the support they need to adjust to a new culture and language.
Another Burundi refugee has had so many apartment fires that some residents say he shouldn’t use the stove.Instead of using a pot or pan to hold his cooking food, he holds it directly over the electric burner, much as he would have done with a fire in his homeland.
Before coming to the United States under a federal resettlement program, these refugees may only have known life in a refugee camp. Once here, they often cling to their old way of life because they can’t communicate well enough to understand and adapt to cultural differences.
“They were brought here and just dumped off,”said Bennie Haynes, president of the Boynton Terrace Resident Council.
The result can be friction with neighbors, and even public safety or health problems.
One of the things Boynton Terrace residents say needs to be communicated is not to use the bathroom in public places like the elevator.
So, I wonder why Bridge Refugee Services is closed (did the State Department shut them down? hmmmm!)
Two people from Burundi and one from the Sudan live in Boynton Terrace, said Haynes. Two families from Cuba and another from the Ukraine live in Boynton or other public housing buildings, according to Bridge Refugee Services.
The federal program to relocate refugees has closed, so no more are expected to come, said Marina Peshterianu, coordinator of Bridge Services.
Thousands of refugees fled war-torn Burundi in 1972. Some spent 30 years in refugee camps before being resettled here and elsewhere.
Between 2005 and 2008, Bridge brought about 80 of the Burundian refugees to Chattanooga.
Most have since relocated to other areas, said Peshterianu.
Simbananiye is 64 years old, has been here for going on 6 years, is unemployed and can’t speak English!!!! He obviously lives off of the kindness of the US and Tennessee taxpayers!
So, I guess one day we will be paying for his nursing home care too and the poor nurses won’t understand what the heck he is saying. So much for Christian charity brought to you by Church World Service!
Endnote: Back in 2007, Bridge, a subcontractor of CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, was the subject of one of the first posts I wrote at RRW and it was about the agency filing a lawsuit (with CAIR and the ACLU) to block the FBI from getting some information it wanted on Iraqi refugees who had passed through Tennessee.
Hurry!!! Tell Senator Rand Paul we need to bring in more foreign workers to add to the unemployed refugee workers in Bowling Green!
Longtime readers of RRW know that Bowling Green is a preferred resettlement site for refugees and has been in the news many times for problems there with the federal refugee contractors, with crime and with its dubious distinction as the home of two Iraqi refugee terrorists (now convicted and in the slammer).
Bosnian, Burmese, Spanish, Vietnamese and English were among the languages spoken Wednesday by the more than 150 former Eagle Industries employees who sought help from the Rapid Response Team.
The Bowling Green furniture maker shut down last month with the intention of reopening with new owners. Instead, the company was forced into receivership and 286 people are without a job. So while employees quickly filed for unemployment benefits, they did not fill out all the paperwork needed for continued unemployment benefits, according to A.J. Tutko of the state’s Office of Employment and Career Services.
“You all thought you were going to be called back,” Tutko said, followed by interpreters in different languages.
Workers need to register for job focus career services, a web-based program that matches a person’s skill set with available jobs.
One man asked Tutko if he knew anything about the fate of Eagle. “No, I don’t,” he said.
Tutko was brought in for the meeting by the Rapid Response Team, which is overseen by the Barren River Area Development District. The team helps workers displaced in massive layoffs or closures.The team had two sessions at the BRADD office Wednesday and was scheduled to have two more today. It wasn’t clear how many workers would show up.
Workers in need of health care are desperate!
Jill Lewis, response team coordinator, started talking to workers about COBRA health insurance and how they could find out about those benefits. But workers, through an interpreter, said Eagle had stopped their health insurance benefits three years ago.
“Then they wouldn’t be eligible for this,” Lewis said.
She suggested that people look toward Fairview Health Center for help and suggested they sign up their children under 19 for Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program. It was clear that workers were unaware of that program. Many of the Hispanic women quickly shuffled through their papers looking for information on the program.
Read it all. There were a few other employers at the event looking for a few workers (maybe!).
For more on the mess the US Office of Refugee Resettlement and the US State Department have made of Bowling Green, type ‘Bowling Green’ into our search function and you will find posts spanning nearly 6 years.
After you let Senator Paul know (his staff person responsible for immigration is Brian Darling, 202-224-4343, Brian_Darling@paul.senate.gov), let Senator McConnell know too!
I have a sneaking suspicion that these employers looking for cheap immigrant labor have been enabling McConnell (and vice versa!) for decades. Bowling Green would not have become a federal preferred resettlement community without McConnell’s blessing!
I was on Capitol Hill this week visiting offices and spotted the April 15th issue of the Weekly Standard(in office waiting areas) with it frontpage story on the “poverty palace” and its founder Morris Dees. Entitled ‘King of Fearmongers: Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, scaring donors since 1971,’ by author Charlotte Allen, is a must-read!
Check it out here, a fascinating (and disgusting) story about a con artist.
Eskinder Negash (Director of ORR): We can’t afford the DC party this year.
Your tax dollars!
This is no great loss to any of you who have concerns about refugee resettlement and the ability of your city or state to afford more refugees on public assistance, because you don’t get invited to the big annual party anyway. You are NOT a stakeholder!
Eskinder Negash, formerly a Vice President of federal contractor US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, now head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (which hands out grants), has sent a letter to “stakeholders” (stakeholders do not include you!) telling them that (boo-hoo) no “consultation” this year.
One of the key priorities of the Office of Refugee Resettlement has been to increase ORR’s communications and outreach to refugees, service providers, partners and other stakeholders. Only by creating a platform for refugee voices to be heard can we ensure that we support refugees’ best interests, and meet the needs of those we welcome to the United States under this exemplary humanitarian program.
The ORR National Consultation is one way in which this office has traditionally sponsored such discussions [Read: US taxpayers sponsored the feel-good event–ed]. This annual event, however, does not come without cost; therefore, given the current challenges we are facing with regard to budget, coupled with our commitment to maintaining current programs as a top priority, we have made the decision not to hold a National Consultation this year.
Christopher Coen writing at Friends of Refugees, here, in 2010 tells us that the annual event is nothing more than a huge lobbying project where contractors bring in their best examples of successful happy refugees (you pay their travel expenses!) and parade them around the Hill to ask Congress for more ‘moolah’ for the contractors. Refugees critical of the contractors’ care of refugees are persona non grata!
Here is Coen in 2010:
Is this the type of conference marking the 30th anniversary of the refugee resettlement program that will really benefit the refugees, the average citizen, and the nation? Or is this whole thing a set up to help the refugee resettlement contractors and their revolving door friends in government?
For new readers: See my Sequestration savings suggestions for ORR,here.
