I was about to have a look at the Syrian refugee admission numbers for May, but reporter Patrick Goodenough of CNSNews.com is on top of it this morning. Christian Syrians with no place to go. https://stream.org/why-so-few-syrian-christian-refugees/
He opens his report:
(CNSNews.com) – The number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States jumped to 1,037 during May – an increase of 130 percent over the previous month – but the proportion of Christians among them remains miniscule: two Christians (0.19 percent) compared to 1,035 Muslims.
May’s figure of 1,037 Syrian refugees brings the total number since the beginning of 2016 to 2,099 – compared to 2,192 for the whole of 2015, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.
Continue here.
We are still way behind in reaching Obama’s 10,000 Syrians (for this fiscal year) goal by September 30th, but the contractors are working hard to find new ‘welcoming’ towns and cities in which to place the predominantly Muslim Syrians as we have reported here in recent weeks—Missoula, MT, Rutland, VT, Ithaca, NY, Charleston, WV, and Reno, NV (that we have mentioned so far).
…..but does he know what that process is?
We are only about one month away from this blog reaching its 9th birthday. Most of what we have been writing for those nearly 9 years is about “the process,” so on this 90 degree day (I am hot already!) I want to blow a gasket over the ignorance still surrounding the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.
It’s not that I expect every American to have been to this blog (nearly 5 million have!), but I am furious that the mainstream media and cable news have been so disgustingly uninterested in investigating and reporting about how the program works! So, years after Bowling Green, KY has been a preferred resettlement site for refugeesof all kinds, there are still many citizens who are shocked to learn that the federal government is dumping diversity on your town whether you like it or not!
And, we still have pastors like this one who hasn’t been reading the news. If he had he would know that WE ARE ONLY RESETTLING A TINY FRACTION OF THE TRULY PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN SYRIANS!
Publications like CNS News(a Christian news network) with its report this week, is getting its information directly from government data bases. They are not making this up! These are the facts in its headline!
Record 499 Syrian Refugees Admitted to US So Far in May Includes No Christians
Bowling Green will NOT be getting Syrian Christians but primarily Syrian Sunni Muslims! Sunni Muslims are the persecutors of the Christians! Sheesh!
Here is what Pastor Blais is quoted as saying at the Bowling Green Daily News about the meeting last night (hat tip: Robin): Rev. Blais is giving the audience an untruth! Photo is at the Bowling Green Daily News story.
The Rev. Fr. Jason Blais, a pastor at the Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, said many Syrian refugees are Christians displaced by genocide, and said the United States bears some responsibility for the current situation in Syria.
Although Christians face persecution, Blais said, his church’s mission goes beyond helping one group.
“It’s important for us to be able to help whoever comes because in no small way they’ve contributed to growth of our faith in the country of Syria over the past 2,000 years,” he told the Daily News following the meeting. “If it weren’t for them there wouldn’t be an orthodox here on these shores.” [He is talking about Syrian Christians who will not be coming to the US in any numbers!—ed]
Blais also responded to what he described as “animosity” toward refugee resettlement at the meeting.
“I think a lot of it is maybe birthed out of the political climate,” he said. “What was really disappointing to me is when the facts were given and people said ‘Well I don’t want to belief that. That’s not true.’ ” [I repeat! They are not getting all the “facts” and I think they know it!—ed]
“I think we need to have a little bit more faith in the process,” he said.
Faith in the process! I’m sure the good reverend doesn’t know what that is! But, maybe he can still learn! Continue reading here.
In addition to 40 Syrians, Bowling Green is going to get 400 other refugees! That is a huge number. I sure hope the Mayor and Council have asked for the R & P Abstract (it will look like Reno, Nevada’s) the contractor (USCRI) has sent to Washington which would tell how many others and from what parts of the world BG is going to get.
And, for all the folks in Bowling Green who didn’t know what was going on there in the last decade with the arrival of thousands of refugees, see our archives on your town by clicking here. And, did you know that there is a national grassroots network of ‘pockets of resistance’ to the resettlement program.?
You will see in the archive that a few years ago there was a huge controversy there because the resettlement contractor was accused of ignoring the needs of hundreds of Burmese refugees resettled in BG and placed in substandard housing.
Shocked to find out—Surprise!—that we aren’t resettling Syrian Christians, but mostly Sunni Muslims. I have no sympathy for his position now because he was so willfully blind for at least the last two decades about where this UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program was taking America. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has been a long time supporter of the UNHCR and its work to bring refugees to America.
Here is a bit of the news from a stunned Smith at CNS News:
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Thursday that it was “unconscionable” that of the record 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in the first three weeks of May, not one was a Christian.
Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson cited that number, reported by CNSNews.com on Monday, in his testimony on the urgent needs facing Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria.
Smith was speaking at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on what steps should be taken following Secretary of State Kerry’s March declaration that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians and other religious minorities.
“They can’t even get into a UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] or IDP [internally displaced persons] camp or a refugee camp, are unwanted, at risk,” Smith said of the Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Someone should really do a full accounting of Smith’s unwavering support for more refugees for your towns and cities (he has been the Republican darling of the refugee industry and its advocates), but I don’t have the time. Here is just one bit I found (in a quick search) from a New York Times story about Smith from 1997 (Crusader and pragmatist!):
…. an anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has attacked him for his efforts to open American borders to more political refugees.
Does he understand that his beloved Catholic Bishops are leading the pack in ‘welcoming’ Muslims to America?
Catholic Charities in Utah is recruiting volunteers who look like the Congolese!
Many people believe that Utah is resettling refugees through the Mormon church. Although the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints encourages the resettlement of refugees, including Muslim refugees, it is actually the Catholic Church in charge here. An aside: every time I see something from Utah I wonder who had the bright idea to place a Burmese Muslim refugee in an apartment complex filled with Burmese Christians. The end result was the brutal murder of a little Christian girl and now the taxpayers of Utah get to pay for Esar Met’s life in prison. Former Somali refugee Aden Batar runs Catholic Community Service’s program in Utah. http://m.deseretnews.com/photo/865590204?nm=1
We have been writing about new resettlement sites lately (Rutland, VT, Reno, NV, Ithaca, NY) as the federal government and its refugee contractors are scrambling for new places in which to seed third world diversity. Now it is Ogden Utah’s turn.
From the Standard Examiner:
OGDEN — Diverse populations of Ogden: You are wanted.
The community is invited to a meeting for future volunteers to gear up to welcome refugees from the Congo beginning sometime this summer.
A refugee resettlement conversation is planned for 6 p.m to 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 23, at the Marshall White Center, 222 28th Street in Ogden.
“We want to involve Ogden’s diverse communities with this initiative,” said Jenny Gnagey, community awareness building specialist for Catholic Community Services and also an assistant professor of economics at Weber State University. “We want to be able to connect these refugees with people that look like them.”
[….]
“Each year, Catholic Community Services resettles 600 refugees from all around the world in the state of Utah,” Gnagey said. “This summer we are expanding our resettlement efforts to the Ogden community. In the coming year, we expect that Ogden will receive approximately 20 primarily Congolese refugee families.”
They must have problems in Utah with landlords fearful of renting to refugees or they wouldn’t be saying this:
Catholic Community Services also is looking for landlords who will rent to these families.
The rental agreement comes with supervision of Catholic Community Services to assure that the families fulfill their obligations.
“If you rent to a refugee and they have any issue, we will be there to support them,” Batar said. “We want to assure landlords that they don’t have to worry.”
Batar wants future landlords to know that the refugees coming to Ogden are legally documented new American citizens. [To be accurate, they aren’t US citizens until they go through the citizenship process—ed]
For more, continue reading here.
Most of the Congolese refugees entering the US right now are from the DR Congo. We committed to taking 50,000 of them, here in 2013.
Below is a map (source: US State Department Refugee Processing Center) of where 20,967 of them have been placed in the last 4 years. (Over 29,000 yet to be placed by the State Dept. target date of 2019!)
Please note that only a small number (846) are Muslims, but many Christian faiths are represented. I wanted to mention that here because there are some misunderstandings flying around that all of our refugees are Muslims, they aren’t!
However, remember as we learned here, many from the DR Congo are women with (costly) mental health needs, and they likely won’t be supporting their families anytime soon.
We are beginning to see some people of the Lutheran faith who don’t like what is going on in their name! Doing well by doing good? Jodi Harpstead is making over $300,000 a year seeding St. Cloud and other Minnesota towns with Somali Muslims. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/03/26/lutheran-social-service-of-minnesota-is-responsible-for-the-somali-chaos-in-st-cloud/
From Christian News Wire:
DODGE CITY, Kan., May 2, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ — Lutheran Pastor Rev. CJ Conner of Dodge City, Kansas, calls on Christians of good conscience to boycott Lutheran Social Services (LSS).
Lutheran Social Services has resettled at least 1000 Muslims in the state of Minnesota alone and recently released a booklet titled, “My Neighbor is Muslim, Exploring the Muslim Faith.”
Once an essential Lutheran Institution in American Christianity, Rev. Conner believes that LSS is unapologetically obsessed with resettling Muslim refugees to the exclusion of persecuted Christians. Their refugee programs are directed by Yusuf Abdi in Minnesota.
Rev. Conner says, “Jodi Harpstead, Executive Director of LSS Minnesota, lauds the booklet, ‘My Neighbor is a Muslim.’ She partnered with Hassan Ali Mohamud– the founder, Imam, and director of the Minnesota Da’wah Institute. All we hear about is their work with Muslims.”
[….]
“We need a national boycott of Lutheran Social Services. We need to stop giving money to Christian organizations who don’t care about Christians being murdered by Muslims for their faith”
More here.
By the way, we are starting to see some of the state and local Lutheran federal refugee contractors drop the ‘Lutheran’ from their names (click here). Gee, I wonder why?
