Category: Christian refugees

Egyptian who converted to Christianity can’t get into the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is one guy who does deserve a visa to get into the US.  He converted from Islam to Christianity years ago and thought when the recent Egyptian “revolution” occurred he would be free to escape the Muslim “prison” he and his daughter had lived in for years.

He got out of Egypt but only as far as Syria.  Now the US (where his wife lives!) won’t let him in.  All the while, and every day, the US admits Muslim refugees from all over the world, but we don’t let this Christian refugee in—it is maddening!

From Compass Direct News:

CAIRO, Egypt, March 21 (CDN) — When the plane carrying Maher El-Gohary and his daughter, Dina Mo’otahssem, took off from Cairo International Airport last month, they both wept with joy. After spending two-and-a-half years in hiding for leaving Islam to become Christians, they were elated by their newfound freedom.

They also felt secure that once they arrived in Syria, they would quickly obtain visas to the United States and start a new life. That hope soon proved unfounded.

After spending more than a week and a half unable to obtain a visa to the United States or to any country in Europe, they realized they may have traded in the reality of being prisoners in their own country for being refugees in another. And as El-Gohary watches the weeks pass and his resources dwindle, he said the stress is almost unbearable.

Read it all.

Iraqi Christians still running for their lives from “extremists”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More on the politically correct dance around who the extremists are.  From The National:

Iraqi Christians have suffered at the hands of extremist [Muslim–ed] groups that have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes since 2003.

Meanwhile, various Christian and Jewish groups have joined to urge more protection for Christians in Iraq and to speed up their resettlement to the US (hat tip: Judy).   From National Review OnLine:

Dr. Carl Moeller, CEO and president of the evangelical Open Doors USA, urged Congress to pass House Resolution 1725, a measure introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) last month that calls on the U.S. government to work with the Iraqi government to strengthen its security plan for religious minorities and accelerate the resettlement applications of Iraqi refugees. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace also supports the measure.

I wonder do Catholics across America know that the USCCB and Catholic Charities are bringing Iraqi Muslims to your towns and cities while Christians suffer in the Middle East?   Wouldn’t you think they might stand on principle and say they will protect the Christians first and tell the money changers in Congress and the State Department to take their money and (you know what).

Do Catholic leaders truly believe that just by being in America these ancient animosities won’t continue in American cities where Muslims and Christians are resettled together?

Minnesota: Dying Catholic Parish helps Burmese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story posted at The Catholic Spirit yesterday.  St. Bernard’s Parish in St. Paul, Minnesota was dying until the priest encouraged Christian refugees from Myanmar (Burma) to join his flock.

It all started a little over a year ago when one Catholic family from the Myanmar state of Karenni heard church bells ringing in the distance. The family members followed the sound to St. Bernard, where they began attending Mass regularly.

[….]

While the refugees have been a tremendous blessing for St. Bernard, making the parish a welcoming environment for them has presented some challenges, Father Anderson admitted.

[….]

Then there are challenges that naturally arise from blending different cultures. While most long-time parishioners have welcomed the newcomers with open arms, a few have struggled, Father Anderson said. [note that in the story it isn’t just a culture clash with long-time parishioners but between two different ethnic groups—ed]

You can visit The Catholic Spirit and learn all about what they are doing.   Readers know that we are all for private charitable help for refugees, so the collection of clothing, especially much-needed winter coats, is wonderful.  But, I wondered, where is the federally contracted resettlement agency, isn’t appropriate clothing on their list of items to supply to refugees in their State Department contract?

Then we note that St. Bernard’s has hired a full time “refugee liason.”  Who is paying for this, the charitable members of the Parrish or the taxpayer?  I would like to know because what is described here is the work of resettlement contractors.

To further help meet the refugees’ needs, St. Bernard has created a full-time refugee liaison position. Tom Flood, former dean of students at St. Bernard High School, which closed in the spring, began his new job at the parish Sept. 1. He assists at parent-teacher conferences with an interpreter, helps the refugees get established with a doctor, walks them through the process of getting their green cards, helps them find employment, and provides a number of other services.

“I’m basically helping them get acclimated to life in Minnesota and life in the United States,” he said.

The reporter needs to tell us where the funding for this job comes from—the private charity of parishioners (which is what the story implies) or the US Taxpayer?

For new readers:  This is just one of many stories, we have written about your tax dollars funding the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities.

USCCB: No hope for Christians in Iraq, bring more to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well, that is basically the gist of what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops told President Obama lately.  Check out the whole story Clerical Whispers:

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the U.S. government to “redouble its efforts to assist Iraqis” in providing safety for its citizens, especially religious minorities.

“To meet its moral obligations to the Iraqi people, it is critically important that the United States take additional steps now to help Iraq protect its citizens, especially Christians and others who are victims of organized attacks,” said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago in a Nov. 9 letter to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Read it all, but, I warn you, it is one of those dark websites that are hard to read.

Regular readers know that the USCCB is largely funded by you, the taxpayer, because we have written about that a zillion times on these pages (one of many recent posts is here).   The USCCB and Catholic Charities around the US are busy resettling Muslims to cities near you and could very well say to Obama, point blank, we want to resettle more Christians because they are being persecuted in Iraq and elsewhere in Muslim countries, but they are too squishy to say it.  Maybe this is about as close as they are going to get.  My fear is that the USCCB is really saying let’s bring an even larger total number of refugees (because we are paid by the head) instead of substituting the desperate Christians for some others.

Time magazine: Sweden deporting Iraqi Christians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But, how many???

I saw the headline and read the story in Time entitled:  ‘Why Christian Iraqis are running scared—in Sweden.’  But I would like to know how many of those deported are Christians?  We know from many previous posts that Sweden is having a huge problem with Muslim immigrant populations in certain cities and that there is a growing ‘close the borders’ political movement in the former welfare mecca of Europe.  Just one recent story is here.

Here then is Time from Saturday:

With numerous attacks against Iraq’s Christians in recent weeks — including a Halloween day massacre in a Baghdad church, which left 52 dead — the country’s religious minority fears for its survival within the boundaries of the Middle Eastern nation. Yet, a long way from their native land, many Iraqi Christians are also living in terror in a far more serene place: Stockholm.

Swedish immigration officials have been deporting Iraqi refugees to Baghdad on flights about every three weeks, declaring that some of them have no legitimate claim to political asylum in Sweden. That includes Iraqi Christians — a category that does not automatically imply a risk of persecution, according to Swedish guidelines. Of the 80,000 or so Iraqi refugees in Sweden, about 6,000 of them are Christian, according to estimates by the Syriac Orthodox Church in Stockhold.

Read it all.

O.K. so there are 6,000 Iraqi Christians and 74,000 Iraqi Muslims in Sweden, but I cannot see where the article says how many of each batch of deportees are truly Christians.  I’m so cynical I think the Christians supposedly deported are used as a PR tool to stop all deportations.   Someone in Sweden, please give us the facts.

Off topic a little, but almost two years ago I reported that Time magazine wrote a politically correct version of the Rohingya illegal aliens story and completely ignored its own reporting from 2002 about Rohingya links to Islamic terrorism.  Bottomline, I don’t trust Time magazine’s reporting on immigration issues.