This story is all over the news in the last few days so I thought I better post on it. Lebanon has shouldered a large percentage of the burden of caring for Syrians (mostly Sunni Muslims) fleeing violence in Syria, but now as Syrian rebels (ISIS) captures Lebanese soldiers and police (reportedly beheading two), the Lebanese people are retaliating.
Of course nothing here should be considered to be a reason that the West is thus required to take in the various Muslim religious sects bringing centuries-old sectarian squabbles to your neighborhood.
From Yahoo News:
Baalbek (Lebanon) (AFP) – The kidnap and murder of Lebanese security forces by jihadists from Syria has sparked new tensions in Lebanon, including a backlash against Syrian refugees and a string of sectarian kidnappings.
Relatives of the missing soliders and policemen, who were kidnapped during fierce clashes in the Lebanese border town of Arsal last month, have blocked roads in protest and even carried out counter-kidnaps.
[….]
The hostage crisis and beheadings have inflamed tensions in Lebanon, which is hosting more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees, and where tensions were already soaring over the four-year conflict in Syria.
The crisis has prompted a backlash against Syrian refugees in parts of Lebanon, with tents in informal camps being set alight and hundreds of Syrians sheltered in the Bekaa valley fleeing for fear of attack.
The Syrian conflict has exacerbated existing sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where most Sunni residents back the Syrian uprising and Shiites generally support Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Endnote: Our post of late last week about the UN picking Syrian refugees for resettlement in America has gone ballistic on the internet.
The US will take thousands of Syrians this coming year unless citizens rise up in mass against the State Department’s soon-to-be-announced plan, but resettling even 15,000 now will make no dent in solving Syria’s or Lebanon’s problems!
See also Judy’s post yesterday—utter disaster.
Update: British charity Oxfam says rich countries must take 5% of the 3 million Syrian refugees this year. That comes to 179,500. But, what strikes me as so interesting is that in articles like this one they never mention the US as among those nations. Why is that?