news
12-09-2015, 07:33 PM
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-12-08-1449599006-7365192-Syrianrefugeecrisis-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-12-08-1449599006-7365192-Syrianrefugeecrisis.jpg)
ISIS is winning the communications war. Their ability to recruit online, instill fear in far-flung cities and successfully hide their plans through encrypted messages seems to get stronger every day. All of which makes them appear much more powerful than they are. By dominating the news and our public discourse they are well on their way to achieving their crucial objective - to instigate a war between the West and Islam.
A relatively small group has hijacked the religion of one and a half billion Muslims. Appealing to disaffected youth, religious zealots and sociopaths, ISIS attracts people who have neither the hope nor the desire to live peacefully in the modern world. Somehow, they believe a path of brutal genocide will lead them to their special paradise.
How we crush ISIS in places like Syria and Iraq will be a topic of debate for some time. How we conduct ourselves here at home will also, of course, make all the difference in our fight against terrorism. And while our security is being strengthened, our borders hardened, our intelligence improved, we are still playing right into the hands of the terrorists. Fear is exactly what they seek to instill.
And in our desire to keep our families safe, our fears may sometimes give way to xenophobia, our anger to prejudice, fueled in particular by the political rhetoric of those who want to sound tough but would tear apart the very fabric of our society - our common values.
We are facing a refugee crisis of historic proportions. Sixty million people are displaced today. More than 11 million (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/as-tragedies-shock-europe-a-bigger-refugee-crisis-looms-in-the-middle-east/2015/08/29/3858b284-9c15-11e4-86a3-1b56f64925f6_story.html) Syrians, half the population, have been displaced by civil war internally and outside of the country. It's the worst refugee crisis we have faced since World War II. In that war, we also witnessed discrimination against victims of genocide that shames us today. In 1939, Americans were polled on whether they would agree to allow Jewish children to be placed with families in the United States. Sixty-one percent opposed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/what-americans-thought-of-jewish-refugees-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii/)this plan. Today, nearly the same percentage of Americans are against Syrian refugees, including women and children, being resettled in the United States. We forget that these refugees are fleeing the same wanton violence that we witnessed in Paris and Beirut and New York.
Attempting to ignore their suffering can cause us to forget our own values. As children, we were taught that the early European settlers who came to America on the Mayflower were escaping religious persecution. We have always cherished the fact that America is a nation of people seeking a better life; that we are a land of freedom and opportunity for those anywhere in the world in search of it. In fact, 40 percent (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/cultural_diversity/statue_of_liberty_ellis_island_national_monument.h tml) of Americans today can trace their ancestry to a family member who transited Ellis Island in search of a new beginning.
Today, just like during other terrifying times in the past, there will be those in the United States and Europe who will prey on our fears, and use this crisis as a means to achieve their own political ends. This is especially true during the heat of a presidential election in the U.S. The calls to shut our borders, and thereby shut our minds to the suffering of so many innocents, resonate in times of fear. But actions which violate human rights and curtail our civil rights will surely come back to haunt us.
Make no mistake, the refusal to grant asylum to Syrian refugees who are legitimately fleeing war to protect themselves and their families is a clear and fundamental violation of human rights and international law. In total, 145 countries, including the United States, have signed treaties guaranteeing the right of asylum. Of course, every country also has the right and obligation to protect their own citizens by putting in place stringent procedures to vet incoming refugees. In Europe, this has been difficult in recent times owing to the huge numbers of immigrants and refugees seeking to cross its porous borders. No doubt, Europe needs to agree on a cohesive set of laws and regulations to deal with these masses in an orderly and humane manner. In the U.S., we also have the right to assure that refugees are vetted very carefully.
The fact is that Syrian refugees are very carefully screened before coming to the United States. They receive far more stringent screening than millions of other people who aren't refugees and receive visas to enter the U.S. every year. Syrians typically wait two years (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/20/us/why-it-takes-two-years-for-syrian-refugees-to-apply-to-enter-the-united-states.html?_r=1) - and in many cases, three - usually in a refugee camp.
First, the Department of Homeland Security must receive a referral from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Then DHS investigators are sent to the country where applicants are living to continue in-depth interviews and an exhaustive vetting procedure. Background checks are completed by multiple agencies, including the FBI, DHS, the Defense Department and the State Department. Syrians also go through an extra layer of screening, called the Syria Enhanced Review process.
So far, the U.S. has accepted only about 2,000 (https://twitter.com/Psaki44/status/666734582750838784) Syrian refugees since the outbreak of war in March 2011 - less than 1 percent of those who have fled their country.
My own state of Connecticut just accepted a family that had been refused entry to Indiana. A young couple with a four-year-old son, the family fled to Jordan from their home in Homs after seven months of dodging bombs and bullets. It's estimated that more than 40% of refugees in the United States are survivors of torture (http://www.cvt.org/news-events/press-releases/us-home-far-more-refugee-torture-survivors-previously-believed). I have met with many of them over the years and listened to their stories. These are decent, hardworking people who just want to live in peace and are so thankful for the freedom and relative prosperity America affords them.
So, we play right into the hands of ISIS when we let our fear and anger turn to prejudice. ISIS doesn't want Muslim refugees resettled in the West. They succeed if this struggle is seen as a war on Islam, rather than a war against religious extremists.
Most of us are not military experts who can advise on the ground war, or security experts who understand exactly how encryption works. However, we all can be voices of reason willing to speak out against both the extremists who seek to kill innocents, and those who seek to violate human rights and undermine civil liberties. The war of words will be just as important as the war on the ground. We should do our part.
Jack Leslie is the former Chairman of USA for UNHCR, and currently chairs the boards of the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) and the Advisory Committee for Voluntary Foreign Assistance (USAID). All views expressed are solely his own.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm)
http://da.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2.img (http://da.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2.htm)
http://adchoice.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/ach.img (http://adchoice.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/ach.htm)http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2t.imghttp://pi2.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2t2.imghttp://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/mf.gif
More... (http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0Cjack0Eleslie0Cwho0Espeaks0Ef or0Ethe0Einnoce0Ib0I87485480Bhtml/story01.htm)
ISIS is winning the communications war. Their ability to recruit online, instill fear in far-flung cities and successfully hide their plans through encrypted messages seems to get stronger every day. All of which makes them appear much more powerful than they are. By dominating the news and our public discourse they are well on their way to achieving their crucial objective - to instigate a war between the West and Islam.
A relatively small group has hijacked the religion of one and a half billion Muslims. Appealing to disaffected youth, religious zealots and sociopaths, ISIS attracts people who have neither the hope nor the desire to live peacefully in the modern world. Somehow, they believe a path of brutal genocide will lead them to their special paradise.
How we crush ISIS in places like Syria and Iraq will be a topic of debate for some time. How we conduct ourselves here at home will also, of course, make all the difference in our fight against terrorism. And while our security is being strengthened, our borders hardened, our intelligence improved, we are still playing right into the hands of the terrorists. Fear is exactly what they seek to instill.
And in our desire to keep our families safe, our fears may sometimes give way to xenophobia, our anger to prejudice, fueled in particular by the political rhetoric of those who want to sound tough but would tear apart the very fabric of our society - our common values.
We are facing a refugee crisis of historic proportions. Sixty million people are displaced today. More than 11 million (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/as-tragedies-shock-europe-a-bigger-refugee-crisis-looms-in-the-middle-east/2015/08/29/3858b284-9c15-11e4-86a3-1b56f64925f6_story.html) Syrians, half the population, have been displaced by civil war internally and outside of the country. It's the worst refugee crisis we have faced since World War II. In that war, we also witnessed discrimination against victims of genocide that shames us today. In 1939, Americans were polled on whether they would agree to allow Jewish children to be placed with families in the United States. Sixty-one percent opposed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/what-americans-thought-of-jewish-refugees-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii/)this plan. Today, nearly the same percentage of Americans are against Syrian refugees, including women and children, being resettled in the United States. We forget that these refugees are fleeing the same wanton violence that we witnessed in Paris and Beirut and New York.
Attempting to ignore their suffering can cause us to forget our own values. As children, we were taught that the early European settlers who came to America on the Mayflower were escaping religious persecution. We have always cherished the fact that America is a nation of people seeking a better life; that we are a land of freedom and opportunity for those anywhere in the world in search of it. In fact, 40 percent (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/cultural_diversity/statue_of_liberty_ellis_island_national_monument.h tml) of Americans today can trace their ancestry to a family member who transited Ellis Island in search of a new beginning.
Today, just like during other terrifying times in the past, there will be those in the United States and Europe who will prey on our fears, and use this crisis as a means to achieve their own political ends. This is especially true during the heat of a presidential election in the U.S. The calls to shut our borders, and thereby shut our minds to the suffering of so many innocents, resonate in times of fear. But actions which violate human rights and curtail our civil rights will surely come back to haunt us.
Make no mistake, the refusal to grant asylum to Syrian refugees who are legitimately fleeing war to protect themselves and their families is a clear and fundamental violation of human rights and international law. In total, 145 countries, including the United States, have signed treaties guaranteeing the right of asylum. Of course, every country also has the right and obligation to protect their own citizens by putting in place stringent procedures to vet incoming refugees. In Europe, this has been difficult in recent times owing to the huge numbers of immigrants and refugees seeking to cross its porous borders. No doubt, Europe needs to agree on a cohesive set of laws and regulations to deal with these masses in an orderly and humane manner. In the U.S., we also have the right to assure that refugees are vetted very carefully.
The fact is that Syrian refugees are very carefully screened before coming to the United States. They receive far more stringent screening than millions of other people who aren't refugees and receive visas to enter the U.S. every year. Syrians typically wait two years (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/20/us/why-it-takes-two-years-for-syrian-refugees-to-apply-to-enter-the-united-states.html?_r=1) - and in many cases, three - usually in a refugee camp.
First, the Department of Homeland Security must receive a referral from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Then DHS investigators are sent to the country where applicants are living to continue in-depth interviews and an exhaustive vetting procedure. Background checks are completed by multiple agencies, including the FBI, DHS, the Defense Department and the State Department. Syrians also go through an extra layer of screening, called the Syria Enhanced Review process.
So far, the U.S. has accepted only about 2,000 (https://twitter.com/Psaki44/status/666734582750838784) Syrian refugees since the outbreak of war in March 2011 - less than 1 percent of those who have fled their country.
My own state of Connecticut just accepted a family that had been refused entry to Indiana. A young couple with a four-year-old son, the family fled to Jordan from their home in Homs after seven months of dodging bombs and bullets. It's estimated that more than 40% of refugees in the United States are survivors of torture (http://www.cvt.org/news-events/press-releases/us-home-far-more-refugee-torture-survivors-previously-believed). I have met with many of them over the years and listened to their stories. These are decent, hardworking people who just want to live in peace and are so thankful for the freedom and relative prosperity America affords them.
So, we play right into the hands of ISIS when we let our fear and anger turn to prejudice. ISIS doesn't want Muslim refugees resettled in the West. They succeed if this struggle is seen as a war on Islam, rather than a war against religious extremists.
Most of us are not military experts who can advise on the ground war, or security experts who understand exactly how encryption works. However, we all can be voices of reason willing to speak out against both the extremists who seek to kill innocents, and those who seek to violate human rights and undermine civil liberties. The war of words will be just as important as the war on the ground. We should do our part.
Jack Leslie is the former Chairman of USA for UNHCR, and currently chairs the boards of the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) and the Advisory Committee for Voluntary Foreign Assistance (USAID). All views expressed are solely his own.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm)
http://da.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2.img (http://da.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2.htm)
http://adchoice.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/ach.img (http://adchoice.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/ach.htm)http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2t.imghttp://pi2.feedsportal.com/r/244161100892/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/a2t2.imghttp://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/mf.gif
More... (http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/4c1ea97e/sc/7/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0Cjack0Eleslie0Cwho0Espeaks0Ef or0Ethe0Einnoce0Ib0I87485480Bhtml/story01.htm)