It's un-American to turn away refugees
In the previews for Will Smith’s new movie Concussion, which is out in theatres now, I was blown away by one scene.
Smith, who plays a Nigerian immigrant, tells someone: “When I was a child, I thought heaven was here (he lifts his right hand high) and I thought America was here (he moves his hand down a few notches).
I found myself nodding and agreeing with his comments. The US has always been a crusader of human rights and has been a country which has shown compassion in accepting and granting rights to illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees. It is a just and fair nation with laws that guarantee equality for all.
This is a country built by immigrants and even after 25 years, I still idealise the famous inscription on The Statue of Liberty: ”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
But since the November 13 terror attacks in Paris by Islamic extremists, which killed 130 people, a majority of people in America have rejected the idea of admitting refugees from Syria, a national poll by Bloomberg Politics shows.
Fifty three per cent of American adults in the survey, which was done immediately after the Paris attacks say that the nation should not continue a programme to resettle up to 10,000 Syrian refugees.
On November 19, the US Congress easily passed a Bill that would suspend the programme allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country until key national security agencies certified they didn’t pose a security risk.
The vote was 289-137, supporting the suspension of the programme, with 47 Democrats joining 242 Republicans in favour of the Bill, creating a majority that could override President Barack Obama’s promised veto.
The high number of Democrats voting shows that not only do they refuse to stand with Obama but that they are also unwilling to risk isolating a public that is increasingly hardening its stance on accepting refugees after the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist attacks on Paris.
And today Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination said that he will order the “surveillance of certain mosques” to combat terrorism and that he seeks a database of all Syrian refugees, reported The New York Times. I am saddened and disappointed at this rhetoric that attacks the most vulnerable of all in the world – the poor, frightened refugees - who have no options.
The world has been cruel before when it turned away Jewish refugees, some of whom were later killed in the Holocaust. During the Pearl Harbor phase of the Second World War, America had mercilessly interned Japanese Americans, which it later admitted was a mistake?
How can the "greatest country in the world" adopt such a stance? It’s politically incorrect, it’s morally wrong and it’s ethically inappropriate.
This anti-refugee propaganda is feeding off the fear that terrorists will sneak in with the refugees and there will be fresh attacks on American soil.
I don’t blame people for being paranoid and I agree that national security is a legitimate issue. But the refugees are very carefully screened and it’s extremely unlikely that a terrorist would seek this path to enter the country.
And I am using data to support my argument: After 9/11, the US has resettled 784,000 refugees and only three of them have been arrested for planning terrorist acts and here I should add only one of these had plans against America and they were not even very clear, according to a report by the Migration Policy Institute.
If the US allows politicians to sway it into believing that refugees are the enemy, it will lose its position as the "greatest nation in the world" which shelters the poor and the oppressed.
I concede that America needs to be careful about whom it allows into the country but I believe that the importance of security can be balanced with kindness and understanding.
Please don’t shut the doors on these people who are running away from violence with their belongings on their back, begging for shelter.
It’s cruel. It’s wrong. It’s inhumane. And it’s not American.