“It is in vain to hope to please all alike. Let a man stand with his face in what direction he will, he must necessarily turn his back on one half of the world.” – George Dennison Prentice
George Dennison Prentice, I’m sure, will always be judged by a majority of readers as hard-hearted and xenophobic. But, as the Yiddish proverb reminds us, even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day. His cold counsel, that a man “must necessarily turn his back on one half of the world,” should be immediately adopted by Western governments as a guide to retooling their immigration policies toward Muslim immigrants. What was so wrong then is so right now. That most nations of the Muslim Middle East are refusing to rescue their coreligionists while we in the Western world are, by way of our imprudent immigration policies, being increasingly exposed to the Islamic world’s violent tendencies and cultural anomalies is an absurdity ignored by those heads of state whose responsibility it is to keep their citizens safe from such endangerment.
In their book A Race Against Death, the story of the 28 year-old Hillel Kook, nephew of the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, and his efforts to “help organize the immigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine,” David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff point out that “in its response to the Holocaust, the United States fell far short of measuring up to America’s basic human and democratic values.” They surmise that “the three main factors that lay behind America’s failed response were the Great Depression, nativism, and anti-Semitism.” The looming irony in today’s Muslim refugee crisis is that the refugees are bringing with them their very own brand of Islamic antisemitism. If the American (or the Canadian) people want to feel redeemed from an antisemitic past, then welcoming into their country people whose religion is notorious for Jew-hatred is not the way to go. Turning away refugees because of economic difficulties and because of the selfish bias of nativism should always be frowned upon. But turning away Muslim refugees because of Islam’s reputation for political violence and imperialistic tendencies is not a policy deserving of shame.
Those fools who equate the situation of the Syrian Muslim refugees of today with the precarious circumstances that hindered the Jews escaping the Nazi Holocaust should be reminded of two things. Firstly, Jews had no country during the Holocaust to call their own, a place where other Jews could have provided sanctuary from their common enemies. Syrian refugees today have multiple countries in the Muslim Middle East to choose from for sanctuary, where Islam is the preponderant religion, in many cases the only religion, and where the egregious cultural practices synonymous with the Muslim Middle East are already in place. Secondly, Jews in interwar Europe were not blowing themselves up in bars and cafes in Berlin and Hamburg or beheading German citizens on YouTube. Jews in interwar Europe were not flying passenger airplanes into skyscrapers or chanting “Death To America!” while burning the Stars and Stripes in public squares. And this is only to profile the two most obvious differences.
Odd that these Muslim refugees and their advocates are offended by so many of us in the West not taking kindly to a hasty infusion of their religio-cultural norms and values into our midst. Even before the Holocaust, the Arabs of the Middle East made it quite clear – by way of pogroms and violence – to the indigenous Jews of what was then known as Palestine that the idea of Jews both already living there or Jews returning to their ancient homeland was anathema to them, that the very definition of the Jew was bête noire to Islam and the Muslim community. It’s not like the Arabs of the Middle East are unfamiliar with the concept of turning away those, both Muslim and Jew, who are disliked simply because of their respective religious beliefs and their cultural norms. The only difference between then and now is that Jews today aren’t begging for refuge from anyone anymore, but, conversely, the Arab Muslim is still entreating and exploiting Western democracies for whatever they can acquire from our tender mercies. In the Middle East some things never change.
In his book The Tail Wags the Dog, Prof. Efraim Karsh writes, “Violence was not imported to the Middle East as a by-product of foreign imperialism but has rather been an integral part of the region’s millenarian political culture.” It is this Islamic brand of “political culture” and “violence” that so many of us here in United States and Canada are determined to keep a safe distance from our future. Any other strategy would be to invite the same destruction upon our half of the world. Better the Muslim Middle East continue to destroy theirs.
andra says
Saudi Arabia even builds a wall against Iraq. No Western government is critizising
https://hambacherfruehling.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/die-mauer-um-saudi-arabien/ (in German)
Schrödinger says
King Salman bin Abdulaziz, tear down this wall!
No, this isn’t some light hearted rhetoric to mirthfully paraphrase Reagan and chuckle about old times. There’s been glaringly scant attention by almost the entire establishment MSM/enemedia (Fox News is the main exception) that Saudi Arabia has been exceptionally busy, hurriedly constructing an extensive, expensive, state-of-the-art fortified wall along it’s entire border with Iraq, in very prudent, rapid response to the eruption of islamic state right next door. This stands in stark contrast with the MSM’s nauseating, relentless consternation and drumbeat about the Trump administration’s intention to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico and of Israel’s defensive border wall along parts of the “Palestinian territories” (which has greatly reduced the incidence of much targeting by external islamic terrorists). This also needs be viewed in conjunction with, yet again, the MSM’s wilful, shameful neglect in highlighting and holding to account or even commenting upon the hypocrisy of the unwillingness of and ironic excuses proffered by Soddy Barbaria and every other wealthy Gulf State to accept ANY muslim refugees.
These vile muslim states all know, only too well, there’s only one thing worse than islam — and that’s even more islam.
mortimer says
The Syrian refugees have 51 Muslim countries that don’t want to receive them. Why should Western countries take them in if Muslim don’t want them?
Angemon says
Indeed. Take Saudi Arabia, for example, who refuses citing “safety concerns”.
More Ham Ed says
Exactly, and besides, there are just not enough ham sandwiches to feed them all.
p says
They are too dangerous, according to the Saudis
Tjhawk says
“We can’t turn away Syrian refugees. That’s not who we are”. We Americans are always admonished by muslims living in America and the left. “Remember the St. Louis” is always shouted to remind us tha we turned away Jews and sent them to their deaths. This article points out the absurdity of conflating today’s refugee situation with that of the Jews.
“We can’t have a religious test that would favor persecuted Christians. That’s not who we are”
12,587. Total Syrian Refugees. FY 2016
12,486 Muslim
68. Christian
24. Yazidi
Is that who we are??
There was a religious test alright, just not the one the media wanted to emphasize. This one was performed in the UN run camps from which our refugees were taken. The Christians and Yazidis were routinely attacked, raped, or killed by muslims in these camps some of whom got accepted in place of the Yazidi they raped.
The Yazidis and Syriac Christians are the ones who are really analogous to the Jews on the St. Louis.
dumbledoresarmy says
“The Yazidis and Syriac Christians are the ones who are really analogous to the Jews on the St. Louis.”
YES.
And they do not number in uncounted millions, either. The Yazidi are very few – having been subject to Muslim abuse for centuries, and ground down to a tiny remnant – and the Christians are not so many either.
Before the Sunni Muslims in Syria made their bid to toppled the ‘heretic’ Alawites and Shiites and achieve Sunni Muslim dominance, the Christians in Syria numbered a grand total of 1.4 million people. Divide that total number up amongst the major nominally-Christian-majority western countries, and no one country – USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, and a bunch of others – would have to take in an unmanageable number.
The Catholic countries of Latin America and the CAribbean could step up to the plate as well, as most of the Syrian Christians are in fact Eastern-rite Catholics, and as such, reliigiously compatible (and more than able to ‘marry in’ in the next generation).
Armenia could be assisted to rehome the significant proportion of Syrian Christians who are of Armenian ethnicity and follow Armenian Orthodox strand of Christianity (Armenia has *already* taken in many Syrian Armenian Christians… in effect, *those* Christians are returning to a part of their ancestral homeland, when they go to Armenia).
It would not be impossible, at all, for the world’s combined first and second-world nominally-Christian countries to find homes for *all* the Christians from Syria …and Iraq as well (again, the numbers involved are quite manageable). Barnabas Fund, who has worked with both communities for decades and therefore knows very well who is who, could easily be asked to help with the processing, to identify those most in need first, and also to make sure that all applicants *were* bona fide Syrian Christians.
Israel took in most of the 800,000 middle eastern Jews who were driven out of a swath of country between Algeria at one end and Iran and Iraq at the other, driven out by Muslims from places where the Jewish presence predated the arrival of Islam by over a millennium. The rescue was called names like “Operation Magic Carpet” and “Operation Eagles wings”. Israel took all the Jews who were driven out of Syria and Lebanon… again, by Muslims.
I do not see why majority nominally-Christian countries such as my own, cannot do for our fellow Christians, now being subjected to ferocious ethno-religious ‘cleansing’ (in their own ancestral homelands!) by Muslims, what the Jews of Israel did for their fellow Jews. We have far more and better resources, and more room, than Israel did. We can ‘spread’ the load across many countries.
And we know for sure that any Assyrian Christian we take in is not going to bring with them the deadly civilisation-destroying ‘baggage’ that a Muslim brings; that although there will be difficulties (Israel had plenty, in the first generation of absorbing and healing deeply-traumatised and disoriented Jews rescued from out of the darkest depths of the dar al Islam) none will be insurmountable, because of the common faith. Catholic churches in the host countries would merely gain a bunch of new people; Catholic parish schools will acculturate an influx of Syrian Catholic refugee kids; and in the next generation churches dedicated to native Syrian saints will pop up alongside the churches dedicated to Irish and Italian and other saints, and in places like Australia Catholic famlies that already ‘blend’ Italian and Irish and Scottish and Filipino and Polish ancestries will add Syrian Catholic in-laws to the mix.
Geoffrey Britain says
“Turning away refugees because of economic difficulties and because of the selfish bias of nativism should always be frowned upon.”
There are 94 MILLION Americans out of work. Many more millions who are employed are working part time jobs, unable to find full time work. Those facts indicate a situation far more serious than the label “economic difficulties” suggests. And, since “charity starts at home” placing first one’s family and fellow citizens before foreign strangers is NOT “nativism”. Not only is it common sense but the foundation needed to be able to offer charity to the refugee.
Dave Long (Infidel Jew) says
Lets get to the basics:
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees:
“As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
Western nations all signed on.
Simply put I suggest you read this because I see no way a blanket declaration is applicable that would allow for essentially ALL muslims to come to the west.
First off there MUST be an individual assessment to determine the veracity of a claim to be a refugee.
NOT happening in Europe or under oZero’s watch.
Then again Law meant zip to him and his muslim co-religionists.
Long time daily reader and student of Mr. Spencer the steadfast and resilient.
abad says
Syrian Refugees(TM), AKA The Muslim Trojan Horse AKA The Biggest Lie of the 21st century.
Troybeam says
These boats loaded and sent on their way with hopes of being picked up, these people know that good humanitarians will pick them up, they even put children on the boats as tools when its mainly adult men thats on these boats, nothing good comes from allowing them in. They need to be sent back to their home land to fix their issues and live there.
Need to reject them, give them water, food enough to get back but nothing else, that is the humanitarian thing to do without committing cultural suicide.
More Ham Ed says
1. Stop reading the unholy ko ‘ran.
2. Fix your own country.
Just a name says
For a look at the insanity of the West, this small book published in 1973 does a great job of presenting all of the liberal progressive guilt inducing suicidal ideas that have been used to get the West into the bad position it now is in.
The book has flaws. It is an intense read as it often packs so many concepts in a short space.
So far, it has gone this way, but it does not have to.
Now we have a self superior feeling invading army engaging in hijrah conquest.
This book explains many reasons why they are getting away with that invasion.
i don’t even discuss the planned aspect of it now. That hijrah is occurring is without question.
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/PDFs/Camp_of_the_Saints.pdf