Day: May 18, 2013

Pew: Christians still make up most of US immigrant population, but Muslim share is growing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No worries!  Only a quarter of a million US Muslims say violence against civilians in the name of Islam may sometimes be justified!

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life came out with a new study just yesterday about the religious make-up and size of the mostly legal immigrant population in the US.

As you read through this ponder these facts (I’ve rounded the numbers):

~ The US population is around 315 million.

~Pew says the US Muslim population as of 2011 was 2.75 million.

~We are adding roughly 1 million immigrants a year (for the past 20 years) and 100,000 of them are Muslim.

~Christians make up the largest share, but the share of Muslims and Hindus is growing.

Here are some interesting segments of Pew’s conclusions (I’ve highlighted the parts that interest me):

Over the past 20 years, the United States has granted permanent residency status to an average of about 1 million immigrants each year. These new “green card” recipients qualify for residency in a wide variety of ways – as family members of current U.S. residents, recipients of employment visas, refugees and asylum seekers, or winners of a visa lottery – and they include people from nearly every country in the world. But their geographic origins gradually have been shifting. U.S. government statistics show that a smaller percentage come from Europe and the Americas than did so 20 years ago, and a growing share now come from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa region.

With this geographic shift, it is likely that the religious makeup of legal immigrants also has been changing. The U.S. government, however, does not keep track of the religion of new permanent residents. As a result, the figures on religious affiliation in this report are estimates produced by combining government statistics on the birthplaces of new green card recipients over the period between 1992 and 2012 with the best available U.S. survey data on the religious self-identification of new immigrants from each major country of origin.  [US refugee program does track religious affiliation, they just don’t make the information public.—ed]

While Christians continue to make up a majority of legal immigrants to the U.S., the estimated share of new legal permanent residents who are Christian declined from 68% in 1992 to 61% in 2012. Over the same period, the estimated share of green card recipients who belong to religious minorities rose from approximately one-in-five (19%) to one-in-four (25%). This includes growing shares of Muslims (5% in 1992, 10% in 2012) and Hindus (3% in 1992, 7% in 2012).

More coming from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The geographic origins of new permanent residents have shifted markedly during the past two decades, according to U.S. government data. In 1992, a total of 41% of new permanent residents came from the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East-North Africa region or sub-Saharan Africa. By 2012, more than half (53%) of new green card holders were from those regions.

No surprise!  Most Muslim population growth in US is coming from immigration.

The estimated number of new Muslim immigrants varies from year to year but generally has been on the rise, going from roughly 50,000 in 1992 to 100,000 in 2012. Since 2008, the estimated number of Muslims becoming U.S. permanent residents has remained at or above the 100,000 level each year. [Readers, that means that probably the biggest chunk of legal Muslim immigration is coming through our refugee and asylum programs—ed]

Between 1992 and 2012, a total of about 1.7 million Muslims entered the U.S. as legal permanent residents. That constitutes a large portion of the overall U.S. Muslim population (estimated at 2.75 million as of 2011).

Most Muslim immigrants coming from Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Iraq, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The most common countries of origin among Muslim immigrants in 1992 included Pakistan, Iran and Bangladesh. Those countries, as well as Iraq, also were among the most likely birthplaces of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2012.

In recent years, a higher percentage of Muslim immigrants have been coming from sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 16% of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2012 were born in countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia. In 1992, only about 5% of new Muslim immigrants came from sub-Saharan Africa.  [Whew! That means about 16,000 Somalis and Ethiopians came last year!  Higher than I thought!—ed]

Now just for fun, go to Pew’s worldwide Muslim survey last month, here.

Don’t you just love it how Pew spins this with the word ‘few’!

Few U.S. Muslims voice support for suicide bombing or other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam; 81% say such acts are never justified, while fewer than one-in-ten say violence against civilians either is often justified (1%) or is sometimes justified (7%) to defend Islam. Around the world, most Muslims also reject suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians. However, substantial minorities in several countries say such acts of violence are at least sometimes justified, including 26% of Muslims in Bangladesh, 29% in Egypt, 39% in Afghanistan and 40% in the Palestinian territories.

So, if we have roughly 2.75 million Muslims in the US and 8% say it’s often or sometimes justified to use suicide bombings and violence against civilians in the name of Islam, that means that 220,000 American Muslims think violence against civilians is justified (someone check my math, maybe I have too many zeros!).  Ahhhhh!

I’m confident (aren’t you?) that when we take immigrants from Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories that we are only getting those from the percentage who do not approve of violence against civilians in the name of Islam—right!

I bet there is a lot of juicy stuff in here for anyone with the patience to dissect it!

Chechen refugee friend of Tsarnaev interviewed by FBI in Manchester, of all places!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Jeannine reports that the story gets better, Musa was aide to a Chechen rebel leader, here.  What?  Are we doing favors for Russia by taking their troublemakers, just like we did with the Uzbeks?  Is that what we were doing with the Mesketians too?

Longtime readers know that Manchester, NH is one of the (few!) cities fighting back against the refugee resettlement industry for overloading their city with needy third-worlders.  We have dozens of posts at RRW on Manchester (here).

Musa Khadzhimuratov, Manchester NH resident and friend of Marathon bomber. VOA Photo

Now the residents have one more reason to be up in arms.  It seems that Tamerlan Tzarnaev was a regular visitor, and that he went shooting with a wheelchair-bound Chechen there who had clearly come as a refugee (although there is only an oblique reference to the UN bringing him to Manchester).   I’ll bet you a buck that, adding insult to injury, Musa Khadzhimuratov is living off the generosity of US and New Hampshire taxpayers in addition to “helping” Tsarnaev.

And, btw, do we give gun permits to former Chechen rebels? (just wondering)

Sheesh, I want to get back to more mundane topics like the State Department meeting this past week, but all of these refugee terrorist stories keep getting in my way (Uzbeks, Somalis, and now the Chechens again)!

Here is the story from the Union Leader, but do not skip the comments! (Hat tip: Jeannine)

MANCHESTER – Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went target shooting at a Manchester firing range and met up with an exiled former Chechen rebel living in the Queen City a month before the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, according to a Voice of America report.

FBI agents on Tuesday searched the Manchester home of Chechnya native Musa Khadzhimuratov, and examined the hard drives on his computers, VOA reported. Police in Manchester confirmed the FBI agents searched Khadzhimuratov’s home, according to the story, but Manchester Police Chief David J. Mara said police will not confirm anything because it is not their case.

The FBI, Mara said, also are not commenting on the matter.

[….]

The Khadzhimuratovs keep to themselves, the resident said, and do no socialize with other tenants. She thought his wife works but does not believe Khadzhimuratov is employed. He is paralyzed from being shot in the back in his native Chechnya.

Khadzhimuratov told a VOA reporter that FBI agents went to his home Tuesday with search warrants and took DNA sample and his fingerprints.

He said he repeatedly met with Tsarnaev over the past several years and that the FBI first questioned him on April 29, two weeks after the deadly attack. Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police while his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was wounded and later captured.

[….]

He said he came to the United States from Chechnya in 2004 through a United Nations program. He is paralyzed from the waist down from gunshot wounds suffered in Chechnya in 2001, according to the VOA article.

He said he first met Tsarnaev seven years ago at the annual meeting of the Chechen Society of Boston. Tsarnaev visited him three times in Manchester and once came with his wife and child.

Chechen Society of Boston?  We were told, in many articles (I wish I had saved them) that there are only a small handful of Chechens in the whole US, but obviously there are enough in the Northeast to have a ‘society.’

There are some great comments at the Union Leader, please read them.

Here is one I liked a lot! From Eric Boyle:

Well done everyone. Every ones comments are dead on. We need to be more vocal about all of this. The liberals get their way because they are loud. Let’s get vocal about what we believe in!

Right on! Right on! Right on!

New English Review does thorough report on Boston Bombers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Did they participate in 2011 ritualistic killing of three Jewish men in Boston suburb?

Jerry Gordon, writing at the New English Review, has put together a must-read report on the Tsarnaev’s road to becoming the most successful Islamic terrorists in America since 9/11.

Gordon details the role refugee resettlement plays in the seeding of American communities with Islamic supremacists, and he reports on something many of you may not have seen—the possible involvement of one or both Tsarnaev brothers in the ritualistic murder of three Jewish men in Massachusetts on  the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  One was a “friend” of the elder brother, Tamerlan.

Gordon (a few snips to pique your interest):

Bostonians may be relieved that the week of terrorism perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers which began at 2:49PM April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon Finish Line ended dramatically on April 20, 2013 with the capture of surviving younger brother Dzhokhar. However, the nation is perplexed about why this heinous and cowardly act occurred and what can be done to prevent possible re-occurrences in America.

[…..]

In this report, we shall explore why this domestic Jihad, perpetrated by refugees with Chechen Muslim origins from Russia’s troubled Caucasus, occured and the modalities of the alleged radicalization of the Tsarnaev brothers in the Boston Community. Why did the post 9/11 counter-terrorism intelligence system fail to detain Tamerlan Tsarnaev given Russian security requests for investigation prior to his sojourn in Dagestan? There is evidence that this is not an isolated phenomenon among Muslim refugees resettled in the U.S. It has been suggested that a moratorium must be imposed to prevent a reoccurrence of Jihad In America.

Then this:

Were the Tsarneav Brothers Perpetrators of a Triple Murder In Suburban Waltham?

We inquired of the Middlesex County Massachusetts District Attorney about whether they had made a match between the forensic DNA samples found at the murder of three Jewish men that occurred on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and the Tsarnaev brothers. I was told that the matter was under investigation. An intrepid ABC free lancer, Michele McPhee, posted the stunning news that indeed possible matches of DNA samples had been indicated between the forensic evidence from the crime scenes and those of both Boston Jihadi bombers.

Read it all.

I think that the failure of Homeland Security to head off the Boston bombing should be right up there with the three Obama Administration scandals the public is now fixated on (IRS, AP phone records, and Benghazi).  Personally, I think the reason it isn’t is that, of all four scandals, it is the most painful to contemplate.

MN: Somali women sentenced in terror-funding case; get stiff sentences

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wonder if the stiffest sentence has anything to do with what one of the women told the court back in 2011?   Amina Ali, after being found guilty of sending money to al-Shabab, declared that we infidels would go to hell.

In 2011, a cabal of Minnesota hard left groups supported Ali and Hassan saying the FBI was on a witch hunt. AP Photo.

After the verdicts, one of the women, Amina Farah Ali, told the judge through an interpreter that she was happy because she was “going to heaven no matter what,” and condemned those in authority, saying: “You will go to hell.” She was ordered into custody pending her sentencing.

Although in December 2011 we reported that Minnesota’s hard lefties were coming to the women’s defense, I guess it didn’t amount to a hill of beans when it came to sentencing the pair.

I would have deported them and both of their families because now they will cost the US and Minnesota taxpayers a boatload of money while in prison, not only for their care but in the cost of welfare for their families.

Be sure to see the “peace and love” crowd’s publication entitled, Fight Back News, here.  ***UPDATE*** Fight Back News calls them “humanitarian heroes!”

Here is the sentencing news from CBS (hat tip: Ed).  I guess refugee terrorism stories are starting to break out of the local press and are going national!

Two Minnesota women convicted of conspiring to send money to al-Shabab in Somalia were given prison sentences in federal court Thursday, ending a week of punishments tied to long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for the terrorist group.

The ‘go to hell infidel’ girl gets 20 years!

Amina Farah Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 13 terrorism-related counts, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan received a 10-year term on one terror-related count and two counts of lying to the FBI.

Ali insisted during her 3-and-a-half-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis that she was only trying to help the poor in the war-torn East African country of which she is a native.

Chief Judge Michael Davis asked Ali whether those who she collected money from knew that it would be going to al-Shabab. The al Qaeda-linked group is at the heart of much of the violence in Somalia in recent years.

“I did not send the money to al-Shabab. Al-Shabab was a vehicle used to get the money to the needy. It was not used for their own purposes,” Ali said.

[…..]

Ali and Hassan were among nine people sentenced this week for their roles in the federal government’s long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for al-Shabab.

Let the civilians die!

The government’s key evidence included hundreds of hours of recorded phone calls, obtained during a 10-month wiretap on Ali’s home phone and cellphone. In one call, Ali told others to “forget about the other charities” and focus on “the jihad.” In another, she said, “Let the civilians die.”

[…..]

“A significant sentence would serve as a warning to others among the diaspora lest they believe that similar grass roots fund raising on behalf of a designated terrorist organization is a viable avenue to bringing stability and humanitarian relief to Somalia,” prosecutors wrote in documents filed before the sentencing.

Note to refugee advocates who want to make refugee resettlement available to all Afghan women:  Women are just as likely to be Islamic troublemakers as are the men.  Have we already forgotten about the charming Mrs. Tsarnaev?

Why so many Somalis in Minnesota?  Because the US State Department and “church” contractors began a seed community there—see one of our most-read posts here at RRW.