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Yes, the entire premise of refugee resettlement is a religious test

Yes, the entire premise of refugee resettlement is a religious test

One of the most outrageous talking points of Obama and the Left is that we cannot institute a “religious litmus test” on refugee resettlement.  Even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), who has dutifully tossed a loincloth to Democrats for political cover, is repeating the mindless mantra on “no religious test” for refugees.  What Obama and the GOP political class don’t understand is that the entire premise of refugee policy is a “discriminatory” litmus test – whether by ethnicity, religion, or nationality.

By definition, when people are being persecuted, there is usually a majority population that is persecuting an ethnic or religious minority.  The purpose of saving these persecuted individuals via refugee resettlement is to disentangle the persecuted minority from the majority of persecutors.  In the modern era, the most widespread religious persecution is being perpetrated by radical Islamists.  Christians and Jews are not persecuting anyone; they are being persecuted at the hands of Muslim jihadists.

The ever-sagacious Andy McCarthy at National Review has aptly shown how our immigration laws are premised on tendentious treatment for persecuted religious minorities:

Under federal law, the executive branch is expressly required to take religion into account in determining who is granted asylum. …

The law requires a “religious test.” And the reason for that is obvious. Asylum law is not a reflection of the incumbent president’s personal (and rather eccentric) sense of compassion. Asylum is a discretionary national act of compassion that is directed, by law not whim, to address persecution.

In the modern era, the most widespread religious persecution is being perpetrated by radical Islamists.

I’d like to augment McCarthy’s point by noting that there has been a longstanding provision of refugee law, championed by liberal Democrats, that is exclusively built upon a religious test from beginning to end.  Since 1990, Democrats have supported the “Lautenberg Amendment,” which was originally designed to bring in persecuted Jews from the former Soviet Union.  Beginning in 2004, this provision, which was championed by liberals such as former Senator Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), was expanded to address the persecution of Jews, Christians and Bhai’s in Muslim-controlled Iran. [1] These individuals would have their applications processed through the U.S. Embassy in Vienna with the help of the Austrians who had diplomatic relations with Iran.

Over the years, I’ve heard from people in the field of refugee policy that immigration officials would vet these applications very carefully and would even attempt to ascertain, for example, at what point the applicant “came to Jesus.”

In the irony of all ironies, the Lautenberg Amendment has long been championed by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which won’t even call itself Hebrew anymore because it has essentially devolved into a Muslim resettlement agency. In a 2013 interview, Mark Hetfield, the CEO of HIAS who is promoting endless Muslim immigration, lauded the Gang of 8 immigration bill for permanently codifying the Lautenberg Amendment and allowing “the White House to designate religious minorities entitled to refugee protection.”

Let’s step back and take a look at this breathtaking hypocrisy.

We now have liberal organizations feigning moral outrage over a religious test in their advocacy to bring in a population that is overwhelmingly disdainful of Jews.  They are comparing those who oppose this suicide to the rejection of Jews in the ‘30s, all the while admitting that religious litmus tests served as the foundation for resettling Christians and Jews in past years.

However, in recent years, with most Muslim countries having killed off or banished all their Christians and Jews, most of the remaining refugees are Muslim.  So in order to continue collecting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to justify their existence and earn six-figure salaries, the refugee resettlement contractors have come full circle and are now employing their own religious test to bring in the majority religion that is engaging in the persecution!

Poignantly, Jews are now becoming refugees in France thanks to the importation of Islam.  Just two days ago, a Jewish school-teacher was stabbed in France by a group of homegrown terrorists.  Any liberal who attempts to throw the Holocaust card at conservatives in defense of their indefensible Islamic resettlement should hang their heads in shame.

The reality is that we’ve reached a time in human history when every major religion can live harmoniously together except for Islam.  Anyone who believes in true compassion and tolerance and has any grounding in our history of refugees would understand that refugee policy is all about religion.  Even the moral relativists understood this until recently when it benefited their personal agenda.

[1] P.L. 108-199, Division E, Title II, §213, January 23, 2004


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