Allentown, PA: Syrian Christian community is NOT "welcoming" Syrian Muslim refugees

You just knew it had to be so, and I’m actually amazed that the Associated Press even wrote this story.  Incredible!

We previously told you about the discord in Allentown, PA as the local Lutheran contractor was surprised to see angry Tea Partiers show up a recent meeting.  But, at that time we were being told that Allentown was ideal because of its large “welcoming” Syrian community.

Tom Wolf PA
Pennsylvania Governor, Dem. Tom Wolf said in a statement that PA will continue to welcome the mostly Sunni Muslim Syrians to the state (even if the Syrian Christians are worried?): http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/readers/2015/11/18/why-pa-continue-accepting-syrian-refugees/75979840/

In fact Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told that gathering at Georgetown we attended that the Syrian American community was opening its arms to the new refugees—well maybe not so much!
[After the first six weeks of FY2016 admissions, PA is number six of the 50 states receiving 98% Muslim Syrian refugees, see here.]

Syrian Christian:  We need to know who we are welcoming!

Here is the AP story at CBS News (What gives? MSM news outlets posting a story that doesn’t fit the Administration’s narrative!):

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A few days ago, a pastor asked Syrian-born restaurant owner Marie Jarrah to donate food to a welcoming event for recently arrived Syrian refugees. Jarrah, who said she regularly helps people in need, declined.

Like many of Allentown’s establishment Syrians, she doesn’t think it’s a good idea to bring refugees to the city. She clung to that view even before last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. “Problems are going to happen,” said Jarrah, co-owner of Damascus Restaurant in a heavily Syrian enclave.

As debate intensifies nationally over the federal government’s plan to accept an additional 10,000 refugees from war-ravaged Syria, a similar argument is taking place in Allentown – one with a sectarian twist.

Pennsylvania’s third-largest city is home to one of the nation’s largest populations of Syrians. They are mostly Christian and, in no small number, support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – a dynamic that’s prompting some of them to oppose the resettlement of refugees, who are Muslim and say they fled violence perpetrated by the Assad regime.

Aziz Wehbey, an Allentown auto dealer and president of the American Amarian Syrian Charity Society, worries some Syrian refugees might have taken part in the fighting in Syria’s civil war and have “blood on their hands.”

“We need to know who we are welcoming in our society,” said Wehbey, who immigrated to the United States a quarter-century ago and became a citizen.

The article does go on to say some Christians are coming around.
One of the myths we have tried to explode over the years here at RRW is this idea that America is one big happy melting pot and that we can shoehorn many disparate cultures and races together (who have been fighting for hundreds of years where they came from) and expect them to live happily ever after in America.
We have reported case after case of clashes for example between African Americans and the new African refugees as they are shoved together in inner city neighborhoods.  Now we are going to see if Middle Eastern Muslims will live side by side with Middle Eastern Christians.
Why would tensions be less here than they were in Syria?  They won’t, and it’s this liberal clap-trap we must expose!

Pittsburgh, PA Mayor Peduto: Bring us Syrian Muslims!

The Mayor of Pittsburgh, PA is one of 18 mayors who recently wrote to Obama asking the administration to admit 100,000 Syrians to America in the coming year. By the way, 97% of those admitted in FY2015 were Muslims, not persecuted Christians.
 

bill-peduto-is-inaugural-speaker-for-feds-michael-f-moran-speaker-series
Not concerned about security warnings, Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto “welcomes” Syrians to the city where they need more diversity we are told!

 
Here is a story at Triblive.com:

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is committed to providing safe harbor for Syrian migrants, despite security concerns raised by top government officials.

Peduto recently joined 17 mayors from across the county urging President Obama to accept more than his proposed number of 10,000 Syrians this fiscal year. The mayors said they would work to find space for refugees in their cities.

[….]

Peduto said he has asked four resettlement agencies — Northern Area Multi-Service Center in Sharpsburg, Jewish Family and Children’s Services in Squirrel Hill, Downtown-based Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, and AJAPO Refugee Immigration Services in the Hill District — to determine whether Pittsburgh has space for 500 Syrians.

What!  He only wants 500 of the 100,000 he is begging Obama for?   It seems to me that if 18 mayors ask for 100,000 that means that each of their 18 cities gets 5,555!  All of you in pockets of resistance should be saying, send our allotment to the 18!  Including to Baltimore!

Pittsburgh Anne Richard
From Left: JF&CS Refugee Services Director, Leslie Aizenman, Secretary of State for the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Anne Richard and Allegheny County Chief Executive, Rich Fitzgerald. Photo: https://jfcspgh.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/jfcs-welcomed-anne-richard-assistant-secretary-of-state/

Get the facts straight!

The government pays about $1,100 per refugee to house, feed and provide basics for the first three months, Mugwaneza [Kheir Mugwaneza, director of the Northern Area Multi-Service Center’s refugee program] said. After that, they must be employed and start paying bills on their own, he said.

They aren’t telling readers that when the refugee gets the $1,100 per refugee the resettlement contracting agency gets about $800 dollars per refugee and that the agency’s job is to get the refugees signed up for all forms of welfare!  Get them their healthcare, housing and sign the kids up for school.  See here.
Now look at this!  How many times are we told that refugees are self-sufficient in 3-6 months!  What!  Without jobs!

It’s tough to find entry-level jobs for refugees and even harder to find housing. Few landlords are willing to accept families who have no immediate income, said Leslie Aizenman, director of refugee and immigrant services at Jewish Family and Children’s Services.

She said refugees help rebuild downtrodden city neighborhoods and attract young residents looking for residential diversity, Aizenman said.

I bet those young inner city African American residents are eagerly anticipating the arrival of diversity, competition for jobs and housing!
There is more, continue reading here.  I wonder why the reporter never mentioned that Peduto and the other 17 mayors specifically said Obama should bring in 100,000?
Click here for our complete Pittsburgh archive.

Erie PA: Impoverished refugees to get special federal savings plan (you pay for it)

What is wrong with this story?
Let me count the ways!
First, remember that you are being constantly told that refugees are becoming self-sufficient in three months. Right! We hear that everywhere, so how come there are impoverished refugees in Erie, PA (besides the fact that Erie has been a long time dumping ground, yes dumping ground!)?

Lynne Cutler
Ms. Cutler gets to play Santa Claus as she puts your money into the private savings accounts of refugees thereby solidifying her position (her community organizing group’s position) as the friend of the refugee.

Secondly, once again we see ‘non-profit’ groups awarded grant money to manage a program that really is a federal responsibility to manage (if Congress deems it necessary at all).
When the bill creating the Refugee Act of 1980 was debated in Congress, the promoters (Kennedy, Biden et al) insisted we would not be adding more poverty to America.  So much for that lie!
But, here is the worst part and unless you have been a faithful reader for years, you won’t know what they are talking about.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement has a SAVINGS PLAN where your tax dollars are matched dollar for dollar for every one ‘saved’ by the refugee.  Read that again carefully!—you (without your knowledge!) are putting your money into a refugee’s savings account! The non-profit agency, like this one in Pennsylvania, gets to manage the money!
Read about the benign-sounding INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNTS, here.   Here is a list of the present grantees.
I wonder if this IDA program has ever even been approved by Congress?
Now this from Go Erie:

ERIE, Pa. — A nonprofit group based in Philadelphia is looking to help impoverished refugees in Erie.

Officials with the Women’s Opportunities Resource Center*** were in Erie on Friday, meeting with local refugee advocacy agencies in an attempt to launch a program that will help refugees open a bank account, establish credit and learn basic household budgeting.

The federally funded program, scheduled to start here in early November, will match money saved by local refugees by up to $4,000 for families and up to $2,000 for individuals, said Lynne Cutler, the center’s president.

The center, which has promoted social and economic self-sufficiency primarily for low-income women and their families since 1993, received a $242,310 grant in late September from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Cutler said her center was awarded a three-year grant for the savings program, which also will operate in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Lancaster.

The center, in collaboration with the International Institute of Erie, the Greater Erie Community Action Committee, and the Multicultural Community Resource Center, is hoping to have about 60 individuals or families enrolled in the refugee savings program between the end of this year and 2018.

I sure hope someone is auditing these grants!
By the way, there is a Federal Audit Clearinghouse, which we hope to use at some point where federal grant recipients must submit audits if they get over $500,000 in federal bucks.  However, the system was hacked this summer and has been down ever since.
And, there must be a big move afoot to push resettlement in Pennsylvania as we noted here last week in Allentown.
***Go here to see a recent Form 990 for Ms. Cutler’s group.  The majority of their funding is from government grants.

Lutheran meeting in Allentown, PA gets contentious, but who is this wealthy 'Lutheran' group?

This is an update of the post we wrote here the other day.  Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania held a public meeting to bring together churches in the Allentown area to prep them for the arrival of Syrian refugees.
The Morning Call reported on what happened next, here.

A Lutheran group that settles refugees in the Lehigh Valley got more than it bargained for at a meeting Wednesday when members of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party and other groups questioned whether some of those refugees might be terrorists.

Lutheran Children and Family Service, which oversees the refugee settlement program in the area, held an informational meeting at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Allentown on how churches and others can help in light of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Janet Panning, program director of Lutheran Children and Family Service, told the approximately 70 people in attendance that the agency expects to resettle about 120-130 refugees in the next year, including about 50-60 Syrians in 15 families.

[….]

Representatives of about 25 churches attended to find out how they would help. But when Panning and others on her panel started taking questions, it became clear that others in the audience were more concerned with whether the Muslim refugees might be terrorists, might try to impose strict Islamic law and customs on the United States and become burdens to society.

I am not going to get into the weeds of the misinformation spouted by Ms. Panning and others.  Read the whole thing and be sure to see the comments.

Two things!

Remember two things (no matter how maligned you might be at a meeting like this one):  First, you are paying for this whole resettlement business and have a right to know what they are doing with your money and to your town, and secondly, the FBI has testified to Congress that the Syrian refugees cannot be thoroughly screened to assure terrorists won’t get in!

You have every right to be there and to question those promoting the colonization of your community and using your money to do it!

Luanne Fisher
Luanne Fisher is the Lutheran CEO/President with the huge salary (below). Here she is as part of Lutheran Liberty. I think real Lutherans should be looking into this tangled web of groups using the name of your faith while milking taxpayers. http://www.libertylutheran.org/executive-team

Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania is rolling in YOUR bucks!
They are from Philadelphia where refugee overload means diversity is not such a beautiful thing and thus they need to be spreading their refugees out to surrounding towns and cities—Allentown is about 50 miles from Philadelphia.  More here.
Some parts of their website are password protected (what are they hiding there?).
If you think this ‘church’ group is passing the plate on Sunday mornings to pay for all of this, forget it.  By the way, they are a subcontractor of major federal contractor Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, here.
We had a look at the most recent Form 990 available for Ms. Panning’s organization and here is some of what we learned (p.9):

Gross receipts that year were:  $14,273,796

Government grants:  $13,506,480 (federal and state taxpayer dollars!)

So that comes to 95% funded by taxpayers!  This is not a private non-profit group, this is essentially a quasi-government agency!

It gets worse!

They spent $8,889,752 of your money on salaries, benefits, pensions, payroll taxes and management!

Now, have a look at the salaries for this NON-PROFIT GROUP! (p. 7)   Ahhhh!   Doing well by doing good!

CEO:  $411,357 (in compensation and related benefits)

Senior VP:  $269,734

Another Senior VP: $205,456

VP of Community Services: $153,837

So, when Ms. Panning is trying to tell an audience that they aren’t paid much, that all they get is $925 per refugee from the State Department, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe she doesn’t know herself how many millions come from taxpayers or how huge the salaries are of her senior leadership. Next time, how about sending CEO Luanne Fisher*** out to field the questions!
From The Morning Call:

The State Department, which works with Lutheran Children and Family Service on resettlement, provides $925 per refugee to help with the effort. The rest is up to the Lutheran Service group and churches that partner with the organization.

By the way, you need to know that when groups like this one seek volunteer help and donated junk, they get to count both the time and the donations as ‘cash’ so they can tell the federal government they have a little skin in the game.
Read the whole Morning Call update here.
Another Lutheran doing well by doing good is Jodi Harpstead, here at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.  How many more of them are out there sucking from the government teat?
p.s. If you have made contact with your Pennsylvania US Senators’ offices, please send them this post! Afterthought: Dr. Fisher makes twice what your US Senator makes, here.
*** Ms. Fisher was the CEO at the time of the filing of the 2012 Form 990 we were able to access and we can only assume she is still the CEO as of this writing.  It is the staff portion of their website that is password protected.

Allentown, PA a "first tier" city to get mostly Muslim Syrian refugees

Meeting tomorrow in Allentown!

Update October 16th:  Local Tea Party showed up and asked questions, here.
Sorry I have to repeat over and over again that the vast majority of the Syrians the US is admitting to the country are Muslims (97%) because many people simply assume we (and these supposedly Christian charities) are helping the truly persecuted Christians.

toomeyofficialportrait
Pennsylvania citizens should contact Senator Toomey’s office today and voice your concerns. PA is in the top ten states receiving Syrian refugees. Toomey is supposedly for limited government! http://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=about_senator

See our previous mentions of Allentown where the Mayor signed a letter with 17 other mayors begging Obama for MORE Syrians (100,000 Syrians!).
And, here, where we learned that Syrians have already begun arriving in Allentown (and Pennsylvania generally).
From The Morning Call:

With at least 130 refugees expected to arrive in the Lehigh Valley in the next 12 months, local congregations, organizations and volunteers are wondering how they can help.

Lutheran Children and Family Services, which oversees an Allentown refugee resettlement program, will hold an informational meeting from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to address how individuals, churches and businesses can assist.

The meeting will take place at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 1993 Hanover Ave., Allentown.

[….]

Janet Panning, program director of Lutheran Children and Family Services, anticipates the Allentown resettlement program will take in 130 refugees this fiscal year, 50 to 80 of whom will be from Syria.

[….]

Wednesday’s session will include representatives from Muslim, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist and Catholic faiths and a representative from the office of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.

[….]

The Allentown agency, which helps about 100 refugees each year, has been identified as a “first tier” agency, meaning it will be among the first tapped to help relocate the first wave of Syrian refugees, Panning has said.

[….]

Those wishing to attend Wednesday’s event can email Panning at janetp@lcfsinpa.org.

There is more, continue reading here.
If you are from Pennsylvania and cannot make this meeting, you should contact Senator Toomey’s office today and make sure he knows what your feelings are on the matter.  Also, find out who the staff person is who will be attending and make sure he/she knows how you feel.
For new readers!
Be sure to see what Senator Sessions learned here about security screening refugees and see here what the FBI Director said just last week—they cannot be screened.  Be sure Toomey’s staff people know about those two important Senate hearings.
See also my previous post from Florida where a doctor reminds us of the mental health needs of Syrians—ask Toomey who pays for mental health treatment?
And, go here, and start to gather important information on what is happening where you live.