President Barack Obama should show Americans are willing to take the lead in the global response to the Syrian refugee crisis, a group of U.S. civil rights organizations said Tuesday.

The leaders from American Muslim, African-American and Jewish-American advocacy organizations, among several other interest groups, told the president that Syria’s neighbors and several European

nations had “captured the moral high ground” by collectively agreeing to resettle several million Syrian migrants, who fled their homes amid a civil uprising against President Bashar Assad and Islamic

State group violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives.

The U.S. should agree to take in more refugees sooner and pressure other countries to do the same, the groups said. “The United States has historically taken in the largest share of refugees eligible for

resettlement,” the groups wrote in a letter to Obama dated Sept. 25. “We need to take further steps in this instance, and lead by example and encourage additional countries to step in as well.”

read more : Syrian Refugees US Obama Policy 2015: Increase The Asylum Number, Civil Rights Groups Ask In Letter To President