Thread: Why Extreme Vetting And In-Region Safe Zones Can Be The Christian Response To Refuge

Shibboleth: Why Extreme Vetting And In-Region Safe Zones Can Be The Christian Response To Refugees




Matthew Clark January 27, 2017




We are at war. It is not a war we chose. Radical Islamic jihadists chose the war. They chose the targets – Christians, Americans, and freedom.




As ISIS (the Islamic State) and other Islamic jihadists wage genocide against Christians and other religious minorities and plot and execute horrific terrorist attacks across the world, what should our response be as a nation?




Our response as Americans and Christians should be both to care for the victims of this horrific genocide and protect the innocent citizens of our country.




Fourteen months ago – in the fall of 2015 – we set forward five key policies to do just that – to care for those facing genocide and protect America. This week it was revealed that President Trump has draft Executive orders circulating that would nearly identically implement this plan.


Here is what we proposed (you can read the ACLJ’s full proposal here):

• America must first and foremost defend our homeland: “This is best for the United States, best for its citizens, and best for refugees fleeing the chaos of their homelands.”

• The U.S. – as “a shining city on the hill and a beacon of freedom for all the world” – must come to the aid of those facing jihadist genocide.

• ISIS arose from America’s foreign leadership failures over the past eight years. “We must destroy ISIS once and for all to provide a sustainable and lasting solution for the approximately 10 million refugees who have been displaced.”

• ISIS has called for the infiltration of refugee programs and has successfully inflicted mass terror attacks through this infiltration. There should be “a moratorium on the admittance of all refugees from Syria to the United States until the American people can be assured that the federal government has implemented an extensive and reliable vetting process to establish the identity and associations of those persons who are admitted to our country so that no radical Islamic jihadists may enter camouflaged as ‘refugees.’” This is extreme vetting.

• The U.S. should lead in the creation of in-region safe zones to protect those who are fleeing the genocide right there in their own homeland.

Recognizing the situation we face, President Trump’s draft Executive order is based around a pause in refugees until we can ensure the enemy is not coming here, extreme vetting, and in-region safe zones.




Yet two major myths have arisen. Unfortunately some in the Christian community have been led to believe that in-region safe zones and extreme vetting are somehow not a Christian response to refugees.




Myth 1: The only Christian response to mass genocide is the mass importation of refugees into America.
The reality is this just isn’t true. In-region safe zones is actually the most compassionate way to care for the most people, the quickest, when dealing with a refugee crisis such as is seen in the Middle East today.




There is no way to import millions upon millions of Christians and other religious minorities fleeing ISIS genocide. Our refugee program could not even come close to helping the number of people who need assistance.




However, America’s leadership, funding, and protection could allow for the establishment of safe zones for Christians and other religious minority victims of genocide right there in their own homeland. The refugees themselves do not want to be uprooted from their way of life and thrust into a different culture. It is more humane, more compassionate, and more workable to take care of them, protect them, and shelter them right there in their own homeland, allowing them to quickly and easily return to their own homes and way of life as soon as the crisis has been ended and ISIS has been soundly defeated. In fact, it could help far more people far more quickly, as President Trump’s draft order sets a 90-day deadline to begin implementation.




Myth 2: Christians must support immediate and unrestricted refugee programs.
While scripture clearly supports caring for the victims of genocide and taking in refugees, it does not require the blind acceptance of all comers. Letting the wolves in with the sheep is clearly not a Christian principle.




Take for example this passage from Judges 12. Israel was at war. It was difficult to easily ascertain who the enemy was and who should be allowed in. Israel’s leader at the time, Jephthah, devised a solution:

[W]henever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly [due to the dialect they spoke], they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan.

This was a form of extreme vetting. You take regimented steps to ensure that the enemy does not come in with the refugees – that the wolf doesn’t come in with the sheep.




That is what is being advocated here. Take steps to ensure that those who are claiming to be refuges are in fact fleeing ISIS and not ISIS trying to infiltrate America. Thus pause the refugee program until we can actually vet those coming into our country and then renew the refugee program, protecting the innocent and keeping out the evil.




This has been our proposal from the beginning. And it appears that President Trump and his team are listening. We remain hopeful that this proposal will be signed by the President in the coming days and can be implemented quickly.


http://aclj.org/national-security/sh...se-to-refugees

NATIONAL SECURITY


Five Key Policies on ISIS, Syrian Refugees, and U.S. National Security

By Jay Sekulow14 months ago



The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) endeavors to promote the national security interests of the United States, while at the same time, protecting persecuted Christians and other authentic refugees fleeing Islamic terror.


ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris, and it is reported that at least one of the terrorists who attacked Paris departed from Syria as a “refugee,” possessing a Syrian passport. Reports also indicate that ISIS has stated its intention to send terrorists around the globe posing as refugees. Now, ISIS has specifically threatened the United States: “[A]s we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington.” The threat is real. So is the barbaric violence ISIS imposes on Syrian Christians and others.


With this in mind, the ACLJ advances the following:


First, the American people must recognize that, as Justice Goldberg observed, the Constitution of the United States “is not a suicide pact” and that the first responsibility of the United States government is national defense. For the United States to remain in a position to secure liberties and safety, the United States must defend against and defeat its enemies. This is best for the United States, best for its citizens, and best for refugees fleeing the chaos of their homelands. The admission of refugees, or any alien, is a sovereign act of the United States, as is an act of national security.


Second, the ACLJ recognizes both the dire plight of those forced out of their homes due to the ongoing civil war in Syria and the role the United States and its people have played historically to aid persons in such circumstances. The U.S. should continue to be a shining city on the hill and a beacon of freedom for all the world.


Third, the ACLJ recognizes that the failure of the current Administration to negotiate a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with Iraq led to our removing all US forces from Iraq, thereby creating the conditions that led to the break-up of Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines which, in turn, led to the rise of ISIS. Also, this refugee crisis is a result of failed American leadership in the region which has allowed the rise of ISIS to terrorize and exterminate anyone who disagrees with their jihadist views. If the U.S. led as we have in previous generations, then there would be no refugee crisis. We must destroy ISIS once and for all to provide a sustainable and lasting solution for the approximately 10 million refugees who have been displaced.


Fourth, in light of the recent ISIS-related attacks in Paris, the ACLJ supports a moratorium on the admittance of all refugees from Syria to the United States until the American people can be assured that the federal government has implemented an extensive and reliable vetting process to establish the identity and associations of those persons who are admitted to our country so that no radical Islamic jihadists may enter camouflaged as “refugees.”


Fifth, the United States should align its Syrian refugee policy to encourage future reintegration into a stable Syria, prioritizing aid and assistance to create safe “in-region” relocation options for those fleeing Syria. If the United States is unable to establish the true identity and associations of persons seeking admittance to the United States as refugees, the United States should lead international efforts to provide for the security and material well-being of such persons at safe locations in the region. The creation of “safe zones” addresses the need to protect the persecuted, while still protecting the national security interests of the United States.




https://aclj.org/national-security/f...ional-security