Article VI of the US Constitution states in part “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Accordingly, President Obama has said that to have a religious test for Syrian refugees coming to the Unites States would be un-American. No one is proposing positions of high office for the refugees who our government defines as people fearing persecution on account of “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.” So religion is clearly a component of the refugee test.
The preponderance of young men among the Syrian refugees is uncharacteristic of other refugee waves. At least one of them participated in the Paris attacks and more suspected refugee-terrorists have been found since then. It only makes sense to worry about those coming into our country. The Administration says any refugees coming here undergo a rigorous vetting process but Congressman Peter King calls BS on that saying there is no way we know who these people are. It’s not like we have attendance lists of terrorist training camps and our intelligence services are apparently unable to monitor communications through PlayStations.
Some have suggested limiting entry only to Christians since there is no such thing as a radical Christian terrorist and they are the ones facing the most horrific persecution by ISIS. That provoked Obama’s un-American comment and the Administration claimed it would be impossible to implement anyway. It would actually be easier than determining who has visited a radical website or received terrorist training.
If we have any intelligence from the area we certainly know the identities of its Christian communities and their leaders who freely practiced their faith in the open when ISIS was still the JV team. Christian pastors know their congregations and would gladly work with officials to help get those truly persecuted individuals into the safe confines of the United States. That would continue the American tradition of aiding the downtrodden while protecting our homeland from the ISIS warriors who have promised to attack us. The Department of Homeland Security is confident that their process of subjecting refugees to a series of repetitive questions will expose the terrorists but any schoolkid who hasn’t done his homework can get through that gauntlet. We are told only a tiny percentage of those coming in are young men of fighting age but the Paris attacks involved women too.
President Obama’s open hand to the Muslim world has been met with an explosion of violence and death in a region all too familiar with both. On this, he has lost the benefit of doubt usually afforded to the President of the United States. The ever elusive compromise is to let the Christians who we know are not terrorists into the country. The oppressed Muslim communities should be taken in by those wealthy Muslim nations who want nothing to do with Christians anyway. Maybe then they will finally deal with the cancerous ideologies infecting their world.
BY: Derrick Toma