[Vision2020] Let's Welcome Syrian Refugees to the Palouse

[Nicholas Gier]

Good Morning Visionaries,

For those who do not receive the Daily News, this is my column for today.
The long version (attached) will appear in the Idaho State Journal in
Pocatello on Sunday and the Sandpoint Reader next Thursday.

Still no response from the UI President, but we will go forward without UI
if he doesn't.

Standing with those in need,

nfg

*Let’s Welcome Syrian Refugees to the Palouse*

By Nick Gier, The Palouse Pundit

Last Saturday, an estimated 700 people participated in a “Rally for
Solidarity with Refugees in Idaho” at the Statehouse. A friend who attended
said that “the crowd enthusiastically cheered the speakers and a large
number of donations seem to have been collected for the refugees.”

Meanwhile in Greensboro, North Carolina English Professor Diya Abdo
received permission from the Guilford College administration to welcome
Syrians to her campus. The Quaker college sheltered run-away slaves and
also welcomed Japanese-American students during World War II.

A daughter of Palestinian refugees, Abdo knows what it is like to be a
stranger in a strange land. So far about a dozen colleges and universities
have expressed interest in Abdo’s “Every Campus a Refuge” idea.

Immigration is a federal prerogative and President Obama has full authority
to process refugees and accept those who pass the most stringent vetting
procedures in the world. The Obama administration has already lined up 180
localities for resettling Syrian refugees. About 785,000 refugees have come
to the U. S. since the 9/11 attacks, and only three have been arrested for
terrorist activities.

With regard to the 23,000 Syrians who have applied for asylum, 7,000 were
interviewed overseas, and 2,165 were accepted for entry (53 were
Christians). Half of this number are children and the rest are divided
almost evenly between older women and men.  The *Washington Post *reports
that “only two percent are single males of combat age.”

Rep. Heather Scott from North Idaho has called for a special session of the
Legislature to stop this “invasion of our country.” She is convinced that
“Muslim refugees will press the Islamic agenda of domination and takeover.”
But, according to Jan Reeves, the director of the Idaho Office of Refugees,
the “invasion” has already begun, and there is nothing that Scott and other
Islamophobes can do about it.

At a recent public meeting, where most of 60 present were supportive,
Reeves said that “Idaho received 35 refugees from Syria in the past six
months, 20 of them children.” Among the 1,062 refugees who entered Idaho in
2014, the largest number (26 percent) were from the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC).

The DRC has been a hot bed of terrorist activities with both Muslims and
Christian Hutu battling each other.  We should trust the United Nations and
our own immigration service that these Africans have been fully vetted, a
process that takes 18-24 months.

Reeves was very concerned about Rep. Scott’s alarmist views: “It’s
disturbing that this kind of opinion exists in our Legislature. We hope
that with good, accurate information and data that we can present a
different perspective on refugees in our communities.”

The second largest number of refugees coming to Idaho were from Iraq.
Considering the fact that Bush II’s invasion of Iraq is the primary cause
of the rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS, it is absolutely shameful to learn about
the small number of Iraqis who have been allowed to come to our shores.

Across the nation 18 mayors have declared their cities open to Syrian
refugees.  In setting up the Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs,
Baltimore’s Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has been especially proactive. This
office helps immigrants get through bureaucratic red tape and makes sure
that they get their $288 monthly state benefits. These last only eight
months so the city has a jobs training program for them to ease their
transition.

            I have written UI President Chuck Staben and asked him if it is
possible that our campus can be used to house Syrian refugees.  At press
time there was no response. A number of us are organizing around this
issue, and I urge you to contact me at ngier006 at gmail.com if you want to
work under former Governor’s John Evans’ motto “Idaho is Too Great for
Hate.”

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31
years. Read all of his columns on Islam at
www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/IslamPage.htm.

-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understanding!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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