A White & Christian Double Standard
Uber-patriotic and liberty loving ‘mericans have their drawers seriously twisted at the thought that a single Syrian might come here as a refugee.
God forbid.
According to them, its both wise and a good thing to exclude an entire nationality from consideration as if there is no way to conduct a threat assessment or evaluation to select true refugees desperately in need of safe harbor.
So much for the biblical admonitions to help thy brother and to provide shelter.
In fact, this is where much of organized religion truly shines: their ability to sow fear and discord and to marginalize anyone deemed as the “other” is unmatched.
Religion combined with conservative ideology has dozens of politicians, local, state and national, preening to outdo each other as they fan the flames of hate.
ISIS would be proud.
Our Terrorists
Omagh Bombimg
American hypocrisy is on full display when we stop and consider that one of the longest running terror campaigns of the last 100 years involves lily-white Protestants and Catholics offing each other at will as they also maim and kill innocent bystanders, including children.
No scenario has been too horrible including indiscriminate car bombings and home invasions where parents are shot to death in front of their children or kidnapped, never to be seen again.
Terrorists in Northern Ireland and with help from across the Irish border turned the area into a war zone where thousands have died and thousands more have been gravely injured.
But–they’re white–and Christian–they can’t be terrorists, can they?
The Mayhem Continues
Not only do these bible-toting “bin ladens” enjoy largely unfettered access to the U.S., Americans have proudly raised funds and provided weapons to support the “crusade” abroad.
We have housed them, celebrated their victories, armed them for the next round of killings and then sent them on their way.
The culture of crime implicit to terrorism continues to this day.
A little less than three years ago, Detective Adrian Donohoe, a member of Ireland’s police force, was brutally murdered by a shotgun blast to the back of the head in a cross-border armed robbery.
Adrian Donohoe
The Independent reports,
“Garda [Irish police] believe that the suspect’s connection with the south Armagh IRA gangsters is one of the main reasons the gang that murdered the detective and father-of-two is being shielded by the unwritten code of silence similar to that of the Mafia’s ‘Omerta’.The murder suspect was identified along with four other members of the gang within days of the killing on January 25, 2013 – yet all remain free.”
The kicker? As of the writing of that story, two of the suspected killers were hiding out in New York and another in Australia.
One entered on a British passport and “was given a holiday visa by US officials upon entering the country.”
How christian.
Here We Go Again
Fear-mongering American ideologues totally ignorant of the role we play in terror here and elsewhere have worked up a so-called “patriotic” lather.
The problem is it’s wrong, completely.
It ignores our values and proves that Americans are easily capable of bigoted behavior inspired by ignorance.
A final word about internet memes.
For the religious may there be an especially hot part of hell reserved for adults who communicate about the lives of innocent child refugees through the use of forwarded memes.