Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tore into President Obama on Monday after the president criticized the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to only let Christian Syrian refugees into the United States.
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New statistics reveal that only 2 per cent of Syrian refugees accepted by the United States since the conflict broke out in 2011 are Christian. “And that they think Obama won’t name the threat [of Muslim extremism] in the name of common sense, and he won’t acknowledge it. Because of those two things, people think he won’t give preference to Christians who are at the end of their line”, he said.
“I had a lot of disagreements with George W. Bush on policy, but I was very proud after 9/11 when he was adamant and clear about the fact that this is not a war on Islam, and the notion that a few of those who have taken on leadership in his party would ignore all of that, that’s not who we are”, said Obama.
“So it’s true that there is a “religious test” for refugee admittance into the United States, but it is a deck stacked against Christians, not for them”, the Center for Security Policy said. On Thursday, the Republican-controlled House passed legislation that would bring the refugee program to a halt, but President Obama has vowed to veto the bill. “There are no Christian terrorists in the Middle East, they’re persecuted”. We distinguish in the United States between acts of violence committed for financial or personal reasons, for example, and those motivated by hate-including “attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin”.
“Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values”, the president said, mentioning that the majority of refugees fleeing the war zone are themselves victims of terror. If you want the region to be safe-ish for Christianity again someday, you should think carefully before encouraging Christians to flee far overseas.
A third Democratic candidate, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, has called for expanding to 65,000 the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the country. “We don’t add religious tests to our compassion”, he said.
“I don’t [agree]”, he said.
On Fox and Friends, Bush went on to say, “We have troops in Iraq, we have a few special operators in Syria, but we don’t have a strategy, Brian”.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is trying to stop Syrian refugees from being relocated to his state. “No, I’m not interested in accepting refugees from Syria”.
Now all we need to do is dangle a few cash and convince the Arab countries to accept many thousands more refugees.
While Cruz said our intelligence can’t tell who is a terrorist and who isn’t, according to the Post, Cruz himself couldn’t say how he planned to determine who is Christian and who isn’t. We can do it anywhere you want.
In the days and weeks ahead, the groups will be trying to get ahead of the calls for a “pause” in Syrian refugee resettlement with their own informational offensive.
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Cruz has come out in support of Syrian Christians being permitted to seek asylum in the United States.
