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Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Why We Should Resettle Refugees In Their Own Lands

I was neither born nor bred in this country. I don’t have Ivy League credentials. Unlike elitists and pundits informed as much by cocktail parties as they are by polls and studies, I’m informed by blood, kin, and culture.

I was born in Baghdad to Christian parents who emigrated the old-fashioned way—legally—and for an old-fashioned reason: The treatment of Christians, like my family, by Muslims in the surrounding culture.

I cry at the “Star Spangled Banner,” and I cry when my naturalized home wages war against my birth home. I am an American. I am also Iraqi, and a Moslawii down to my dialect and my cooking. Such is the existential reality of first-generation immigrants: The “both/and” tension of two civilizations within one self, the wistful desire for one identity, one culture, one homeland, one whole and integral worldview. I hope, at the seasoned age of 46, I have wisdom to share with you, my beloved Americans.

This would be a good time to stop talking about immigrants as if we are children. That’s my first suggestion. American politicians, professors, and pundits who have never lived under a dictator in their life, were raised within a Western heritage and education system, and learned foreign policy and political philosophy ideas in the West pontificate about what is best in the Middle East and for middle easterners.

Fine, listen to your experts if you must, but maybe this is the time to include us in the conversation. We have opinions and knowledge. These are our countries, whose names you mispronounce, whose culture you disregard, whose history you remake, and whose future you would fashion in your image and likeness.

We can begin the road to healing—which encompasses a better understanding of immigration and immigrants—by changing how we view nationality. Nationality is a "good." Iraqis want a country of their own where they can have their own language, traditions, and way of life. So do the Syrians I know. Americans should want the same for themselves.

America is a nation, too. It has a culture, and it had at one point a national identity. You should want to care for your own country, you should desire to know and uphold your identity. You should love your country, your traditions, your holidays, your shared common life. You should want to uphold your laws and protect your borders.
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure its crazy to resettle in a place that currently being bombed by three sides.

Anonymous said...

We need to regain our national identity. We've lost it from within.

Anonymous said...

If they were safe in their own lands they wouldn't be refugees. It's amazing how un-Christian we have become. The Apostles, and Christ himself were refugees.

Anonymous said...

I disagree with my peers in this review. How is it "un-Christian" to avoid accepting refugees who have affiliations with known terrorists. The Apostles and Christ himself had no terror ties !

I'd like to know how and why people today continue to baby Islamic terrorists after the many atrocities that have been committed?

And just to avoid a volley of debate here - the data on the refugees remains unclear and inconsistent. There are parties on both sides claiming some refugees should be helped because they are women and children -- no problem ! But how about fighting age males? Are we now going to accept them too? Or at least until more innocent people die ?

How many people have to die before we take terrorists seriously? Apparently the incidents in France were not enough.

Does anyone here realize anyone outside the Muslim faith is considered an "infidel" and infidels are a nuisance to the Muslim faith that are to be eliminated according to their caliphate. Please try to accept the fact, they don't want to be our friends and do want to hurt Americans, and that is unacceptable. Period !

Anonymous said...

Christ, and people like him didn't strap bomb vests on and blow people up or, chop off heads..Big difference 1:20. Leave the guilt trip at the curb; it's not working.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing how people always want to cite a persons Christianity when it suits their argument. Then belittle Christians for their beliefs the rest of the time. By the way, Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

They are invading army in our soil and we are risk being attack them.

Anonymous said...

To the author, our Forefathers fought and died for the freedoms you simply ran to in order to take advantage of.

Why didn't you and your fellow Countrymen stand and fight and die for the freedoms in your own homeland?

It's that simple. Don't come here and complain that you can't live how you want to live. Go back and fight for it. Make that happen for all your Brothers and Sisters!