Appeals Court: No asylum in America for German homeschoolers

We will take Chechens, Somalis and Rohingya Muslims, but not persecuted Christians from Germany who pose no threat to America.  Go figure!

We let Saudi students stay, and Somalis who have committed crimes stay, and Uzbek would-be Presidential assassins stay, but not a family like this one!

From The Local (German edition). Hat tip Fjordman via twitter:

An American appeals court has denied a fundamentalist Christian family from Germany the right to asylum in the US. The family claimed they were being persecuted for not being allowed to homeschool their children.

In its Tuesday ruling, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, said there was a difference between the persecution of a group and prosecution of violators of a law that is applied across the board – in this case, Germany’s rule on mandatory schooling.

News agency AP reported that the family is planning to fight the decision.

[....]

The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the Romeikes in court, said Germany’s policy on homeschooling is tantamount to persecution, and called Tuesday’s ruling “inexplicable”.

“We believe the Sixth Circuit is wrong and we will appeal their decision. America has room for this family and we will do everything we can to help them,” HSLDA founder Michael Farris said in a statement on the organisation’s website.

Thanks largely to the Home School Legal Defense Association, homeschooling (raising children to think independently!) in America is flourishing and is one of our fundamental rights that will help guarantee our freedom into the future.  Not permitting it is one more nail in Germany’s coffin.

Meatpackers changing small town America (and you have no say in the process)

The importation of refugee labor is how it is being done.

Here is one more story about Tyson Foods (or it could be Swift & Co, or perhaps Perdue) attracting refugee laborers to a meatpacking town—this time Columbus Junction, Iowa. Hat tip to one of our friends from Tennessee.

Downtown Columbus Junction

I first really began to understand this driver of the State Department’s Refugee Resettlement program here in 2008 when I read about Bill Clinton importing Bosnian so-called “refugees” for meatpackers in Iowa in the mid-1990s.

You see, readers, the meatpackers had discovered cheap immigrant labor from south of the border, but the enterprise became too risky as the feds began busting them in some highly publicized ICE raids. So, where did they turn…to refugees of course. 

Heck they are legal workers and they are basically captive labor—they can’t go home (although some very unhappy ones do find the money to return to their homeland).  In addition, you, the taxpayers, help to subsidize them with ‘social services’ while the meatpacker reaps the rewards—quite a business model!

For awhile the meatpacking giants were enthralled with the Somalis, but they came with one serious problem—they are Muslim and they began demanding workplace accommodation for their Islamic religious practices.  We have a whole category entitled, Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy with 87 posts in it (here) for your further edification.  However, in the story I am about to relate, they wouldn’t have hired Somalis anyway—it’s a pork processing plant.

What to do?  What to do?  We will tell the State Department to bring us some docile workers like the Christian Chin or Karen, or the Bhutanese/Nepalese who don’t complain so much.  And, I’m convinced that somewhere in the bowels of Washington there was such a conversation between big business lobbyists and the federal government.

My scenario is not so farfetched when you see what is going on with the Gang of Eight being driven by Big Business and Grover Norquist,  and you know this immigrant legalization push is not about “humanitarianism!”

Here is the AP story at the Tampa Tribune:

 COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) — The first Chin Burmese student arrived at Wilma Sime Roundy Elementary School three years ago, a smiling preschooler whose father often checked on his progress.

The school had long been accustomed to educating the children of the Mexicans, Hondurans and Salvadorans who came to work at the sprawling Tyson Foods pork processing plant that sits outside this town of 2,000. But then, principal Shane Rosenberg recalled, Tyson informed school leaders that a new group of workers was coming – the Chin, a largely Christian ethnic minority who were fleeing their homeland in western Myanmar to avoid persecution.

Readers keep reading through all the paragraphs about how wonderful the newcomers are (and surely many are nice people).  Everything is just great don’t ya’ know!  Then we get to the problems …

Tyson spokesman:  Nah! We don’t favor refugees (tell that to the Hispanics!)

Tyson and other meatpacking companies have increasingly recruited non-Latino workers in recent years, including Burmese, Sudanese and others, said Mark Grey, director of the Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration at University of Northern Iowa. Since a 2008 raid of a Postville, Iowa, slaughterhouse, where 389 immigrants were arrested, companies have become more careful to avoid hiring employees who may have entered the country illegally, he said.

Refugees are in the country legally and may apply for citizenship within five years.

Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson denied the company was favoring refugees over others, saying the industry has long attracted immigrants for entry-level jobs that do not require experience or English skills. The makeup of its workforce shifts as new immigrant groups come to the U.S., he said.  [There is also a tax break for hiring certain immigrant workers that no one is willing to talk about!---ed]

A little multi-culti friction has developed:

But in town, both the Chin and Spanish-speaking communities feel that more Chin are being hired at the expense of Latinos, which has caused some friction, said Cristina Ortiz, a doctoral student in anthropology who moved to Columbus Junction four years ago to study the town.

“Latinos and Chin people recognize they both have the same goals in life,” she says. “That is to make their lives better and provide for their families and live a tranquil life. But in a certain sense, they are in competition with each other. They are applying for the same jobs. They have the same skills. And that’s tricky. Obviously there is some tension there.”

Burmese Chin are arriving from other states where it’s tough to get a job (But wait!  Isn’t the Gang of Eight telling us we need millions more low-skilled laborers).

In Columbus Junction, Mickelson said, the first five Burmese workers were hired as part of a recruitment effort in Illinois and later encouraged friends and relatives to apply. Burmese started arriving from Indiana, Texas, Florida and other states where they say jobs were harder to come by.

Problems at first with drunk driving, public urination, a few suicides, but once the women got there things calmed down.  Now it’s just a housing shortage.  But, AP wants you to know that Columbus Junction will be just fine.

City officials say some of the first arrivals abused alcohol, which had previously not been as cheap or available to them. Public urination and intoxication and drunken driving were common. But the police chief and other officials warned community leaders about their expectations, and as more women and children arrived, the problems have dissipated.

Two refugees have committed suicide and a third was found drowned in a river near the Tyson plant, said police Chief Donnie Orr. A shortage of mental health and substance abuse treatment is a problem, Ortiz said.

But refugees and city leaders agree the biggest challenge now is finding housing for the newcomers. City officials say there are hardly any available rental apartments, which go for about $450 a month for three bedrooms.

Hey, here is an idea!  How about if Tyson Foods build some housing out of their profits and not with taxpayer money.  And. while they are at it they could kick in the money for the school system to pay for the ESL teachers.

Media and Muslims: It’s always about the poor maligned Muslim Rohingya

I’ve been writing about the Rohingya (Bengalis) for years and have watched the Muslim grievance lobby, human rights agitators, and government contractors sucker the media into believing that everything evil in Burma has nothing to do with Rohingya (they are only, and always! the poor victims) and has everything to do with Buddhist racism toward Muslims.

It is infuriating, but fascinating too, to watch the Leftists/open borders/human rights cabal and their media lapdogs build the case that the Rohingya Muslims are never the aggressor and will surely, and soon, renew their push to get them to the West as refugees.  I think they just got momentarily distracted by the hordes of Syrians and they need to work those drums—save the Syrians and send us money—before properly renewing the push for bringing Rohingya to your neighborhoods.

To make my case against the media….

Ethnic conflicts stirred again recently in Burma (aka Myanmar) between the Rohingya Muslims and the majority Buddhists.  Here is the headline of a story at The Nation earlier this week—“10 dead, mosques destroyed in Myanmar unrest.”

The casual reader might conclude that once again the bad evil Buddhists have killed ten Muslims and are busy burning down their mosques.  But, read the story and see that it is unclear who exactly is to blame and who is dead.  A tip-off might be in the seventh paragraph:

Police said several mosques were destroyed and a Buddhist monk was among two killed on Wednesday, but they did not give an updated toll for Thursday.

So, at least one Buddhist was killed—a monk!  Did that start the riots?  I don’t know, but the headline of the story was clearly written to make it look like once again the long-suffering Rohingya were being persecuted.

Fire in a refugee camp in Thailand

Then just across the border in Thailand there are huge refugee camps and unfortunately a wind-whipped fire killed dozens last week.

Here is the story from the Bangkok Post (titled: 35 die in fire at Karen refugee camp)

The Karen are Christians from Burma.

Karen refugees take shelter on the road near the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp on Friday night after fire burned down their thatch huts. (AP Photo)

MAE HONG SON: Rescue workers picked through the ashes of hundreds of shelters on Saturday after a ferocious blaze swept through a camp for Karen refugees in Mae Hong Son, killing 35 people.

Around 100 people were injured in the fire that broke out Friday night at the Mae Surin camp, provincial governor Narumol Paravat told AFP by telephone, giving a reduced toll from the 45 dead previously stated.

[....]

Security sources said the blaze was not an act of sabotage.

However, investigators are trying to determine if the blaze was caused by an accidental cooking fire, or by sparks blown from forest fires that have been burning in the area.

[....]

“We have been able to get into the camp with food supplies and plastic sheets for shelters,” said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR.

The camp, located about 90 kilometres west of Mae Hong Son, town houses about 3,300 Karen refugees, she said.

It is one of nine refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border set up more than two decades ago to offer asylum for ethnic Karen fleeing the fighting between the Myanmar army and rebel troops.

Same unrest in Burma, same camp in Thailand, same fire, but Muslim publication!

Incredibly here is the story about both incidents in a Muslim news agency report (titled: Fire at Rohingya camp in Thailand kills 42).

Sub-heading:

A blaze at a refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar in northern Thailand leaves at least 42 people dead and dozens injured, the provincial governor says.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – “The latest death toll we can confirm through military walkie-talkies is 42,” Mae Hong Son provincial governor Narumol Paravat told AFP on Saturday.

The official added that the death toll from Friday’s fire was likely to increase further as rescue workers are searching the area.    [Fascinating!  No mention of Rohingya dead here, but yet the title leaves the reader assuming the dead are Rohingya!---ed]

Hundreds of Myanmar’s Muslim residents have fled their homes following the eruption of fresh clashes between extremist Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Meiktila, located some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital city of Naypyidaw.

At least 20 people have lost their lives in clashes late on Wednesday after extremist Buddhists set fire to several mosques in the city.  [No mention here that a Buddhist monk died---ed]

Following three days of deadly unrest, Myanmar President Thein Sein on Friday announced a state of emergency in the town of Meiktila.

Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels the minority of about 800,000 as “illegal” immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Readers, I’ve been following this biased news on the Rohingya for five years now (135 posts)—it is so frustrating to watch!  And, based on this type of reporting, your US federal refugee contractors will surely be telling the State Department we need to bring more Rohingya to America in 2014 to add to our collection of thousands and thousands of other Burmese ethnic group members already here.

Update March 26th:  Hackers involved with “Anonymous” have created a twitter storm to help fuel the one-sided story of evil racist Nazi Buddhist monks vs. the good pure poor and maligned Rohingya Muslims.  Here is just one report on what is happening.

A quick question: If Iraq is safe enough to give refuge to Syrians….

….why are we still bringing Iraqis to the US?

The New York Times had an article yesterday about the UNHCR warning of dire consequences if the Syrian refugee tide continues to rise.  I’ll be watching for the first sign that Obama wants to help his buds in Turkey by bringing Syrians to the US.  Using the refugee program for other political purposes is one of the worst flaws in the flawed system.

In Turkey, 183,000 registered Syrians live in camps, and an estimated 100,000 unregistered Syrians live in urban areas. Iraq is now home to more than 100,000 Syrians, and Mr. Guterres said 37,000 Syrians had been registered in North Africa.

Holy cow!  We have brought 6,030 Iraqis to the US in the first 4 months of this fiscal year (began Oct.1), here.  I can assure you that most are not Christians!    For readers concerned about the Iraqi Christians, although the State Department knows what percentage of Christians are in this group they do not tell the public, so we can only make assumptions.

And, by the way, the Iraqis arriving here aren’t finding work and are largely on welfare, here.

Huge Christian refugee problem is coming

I’m watching C-SPAN’s Book TV this Sunday morning. An author, Lela Gilbert, is discussing her book, Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel Through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner. She was talking about the hundreds of thousands of Jews in Arab lands who had to flee after the founding of Israel. That went on from 1948 until the 1970s, but it’s only now being taken note of. Then she talked about what is going on with Christians in the Middle East. The Iraqi Christians didn’t see it coming, she said. They are still being attacked, and their numbers are a fraction of what they were. (We’ve written about this.) But Iraqi Christians have fled to Syria, and now they are in danger there. Egypt has millions of Christians, and the ones who have enough money to get out are getting out. The others will leave any way they can, lots of them.

There will be no Christians in the Middle East in a few years, except, ironically, in Israel. Lela Gilbert said the Christians’ plight is desperate. “Christians have no Israel,” nowhere to go where they will be automatically accepted. And Christians in the west do not take much interest in these beleaguered people. Their ancient liturgies and ways of worship are strange to most American Christians. Evangelicals consider them Catholic (which they are) and want to “convert” them. Christians usually don’t think of themselves as one people, the way Jews do, and that’s a sad thing. It wasn’t always that way.

I don’t see any solution. We unleashed “change” in the Middle East, and the change turned out to be all in the direction of Islamists taking power. The Jews found there was no room for them decades ago, and now the Christians are finding the same thing.

No jobs, mental illness plague Iraqi refugees in Dearborn, MI

Since we are on the subject of immigrants with untreated mental illness (see yesterday’s horrifying story from the Boston Globe), this story from Newsweek about Iraqi refugees struggling in Michigan fits right in.

Although Iraq is now governed by a democratically elected government that we gave them at a very high cost to America in blood and treasure, we are still pouring Iraqi refugees into the US for myriad reasons, but like the first sad tale this article tells, some are hankering for the good old days when Saddam Hussein ran the place.

Here is Mohasen wishing she could return to the days of being a ballet instructor in Iraq.  She says she can’t find a ballet job here in the US and must work menial jobs to make ends meet.  But, the reality is that there isn’t ballet in Iraq now either since the Islamists are running the show (no little girls in skimpy costumes).  Mohasen lamenting the loss of her good life in Iraq:

Mohasen flips through an album full of photographs and looks at pictures of young children in delicate yellow ballerina costumes, leaping around a stage. She recites all 20 of their names—students from years ago—calling them her “butterflies,” which was also the name of their ballet troupe. The pictures are reminders of Mohasen’s former life in Baghdad—a life that she knows she will never have again, so long as she is a refugee in the United States.

Newsweek then tells us that 59,000 Iraqis have arrived in the US since 2007. Actually that is wrong, if you go to WRAPS they have a special category just for Iraqis and Iraqi SIVs.  The numbers are 77,534 refugees plus an additional 8,119 SIVs.

Michigan got 12,000 plus Iraqis since 2007, second only to California with over 19,000 between Iraqi refugees and SIVs in the same time period.  How many of those do you think are on some type of welfare?  I bet it’s nearly 100%.

No jobs, mental problems and prejudice.  Prejudice from fellow Arabs (Newsweek doesn’t say it, but it’s Muslim v. Chaldean Christian prejudice most likely)!    How can that be, only white Americans are supposed to be prejudiced?  Right?

When the last envoy of U.S. troops crossed the border into Kuwait, it marked the end of America’s war in Iraq. Billions of dollars had been spent and thousands of lives lost. But while the U.S. celebrated and welcomed its troops home, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were left with a far different reality—redefining their lives as refugees in unfamiliar countries. Now they’re facing a battle of a different sort: assimilating into mainstream America. The challenges range from job woes and the prejudice of earlier immigrants to serious psychological wounds sustained in war.

“Unwelcoming ” Dearborn makes finding a job harder.  Really?  I thought it was the US job market and Michigan’s job market, mental health problems, and lack of English, etc.   Readers we haven’t had so many stories lately, but for awhile we had almost weekly reports of Iraqi refugees somewhere in the US being unhappy with their new lives in America, some even returned to the Middle East in disgust.  LOL! Type ‘Iraqi refugees unhappy‘ into our search function and see what I mean.   Also, click on our Iraqi Refugee category for literally hundreds of posts (551 to be exact!) on problems with Iraqi refugees.  Somebody should write a book!

Many of the refugees headed to Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arabs, as well as Iraqi expats, in the U.S. According to Hassam Abdulkhaleq, program manager of the psychosocial rehabilitation center at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)—one of the largest Arab activist organizations in the country—the first wave of Iraqis arrived in Michigan during the first Gulf War, with a second influx coming at the start of the occupation of Iraq in 2003. Many of the second-wave refugees are Chaldean Christians, who were persecuted along with other religious minorities after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

With the beginning of the war in 2003, resources for the Detroit-area refugee population focused on Iraqis who were particularly vulnerable because of their religious beliefs. Refugees who had settled in the area in years past were not always so welcoming. “There is a blending-in problem,” says Manuel Tancer, a professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University. “And I think it’s a problem with any immigrant.” Tancer counsels victims of torture in the Detroit metropolitan area. “This is an issue when you have people coming to a particular area because they have relatives there. [They are] not always accepted happily and gladly by the people that have been there for a while.”

The unwelcoming environment only made it more difficult for Iraqis to integrate into their new homes. They were seeking acceptance not only from Americans but from the established refugee community as well. The lack of support they received made it that much more difficult for them to find quality work—even if they’d had prosperous careers back in Iraq.

Untreated mental illness is prevalent:

 Like many other Iraqi refugees in the U.S., Mohasen and Fatima’s struggles are exacerbated by past traumas. For most, the war they fled is an ever-present reality. Muntaha Fleful left Iraq after being attacked by a Baghdad militia in 2004. She was resettled in the U.S. in 2008, after being treated for her injuries in Jordan. Now, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and receives treatment from ACCESS’s psychosocial rehab center.

According to Abdulkhaleq, the center’s program manager, PTSD tends to cause nightmares, poor concentration, and extreme anger. He thinks that thousands of refugees are suffering from mental illnesses associated with war, but that only a small percentage receive treatment due to limited resources in the area.

Oh, geez, will Syrians be coming next?   Dearborn residents worry that the diversity-is-beautiful gang in the State Department will soon throw Syrians into the Michigan melting pot!  (that is not how Newsweek says it!):

The Iraqi population in Dearborn has been the focal point for refugee aid over the past 10 years. But now that the Iraq War has ended, that focus seems to be dropping off in favor of newer conflicts, such as the one in Syria. Although the civil war there continues to spiral, the U.S. has yet to aid Syrian refugees. But officials in Dearborn think it is only a matter of time before they see an influx of Syrians in the area, and worry that the spike may overwhelm already strained resources.

Read it all.

Note:  We have already taken the first step in that direction and Obama has granted Temporary Protected Status to Syrians, here.  That means any Syrians who are in the US already for whatever reason (even illegally) are temporary refugees and are given permission to stay and work indefinitely.  (It is supposed to be temporary, but never is!)

Will Egypt’s Coptic Christians become the new wave of refugees to the US?

There is no doubt that the hardline Islamic supremacists are making Christians’ lives miserable in Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood-governed Egypt, but because Obama and Hillary have so much invested in the glorious Arab Spring, a wholesale movement of Copts to the US would put a lie to their entire Middle East/Africa foreign policy gamble.  (Just as the murder of four Americans in Benghazi puts a lie to Obama’s Libya “democracy” experiment).

Here is the story from The Commentator (Get ready for Coptic Christian refugees):

 There is a refugee crisis taking place inside Egypt. This became apparent on October 5th, when Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi met with a group of Coptic Christians who had been driven from their homes by Muslim extremists in Rafah, a city located on Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Morsi met with the families in El Arish, a town approximately 30 miles from Rafah in an attempt to reassure them that the threats and violence they endured before fleeing their homes would never happen to them again.

“What happened is an individual case which represents neither Egypt nor its children, Muslim or Christian,” he said. “It’s a crime for which the perpetrators must be held responsible.”

Morsi intimated to his Coptic audience that he would work to find new homes and livelihoods for them elsewhere in Egypt. This prompted an angry response from the Coptic families who complained that they had already established their lives in Rafah – the city where they had just been driven from and where Christians had been living for close to two millennia.

It’s interesting to note that Morsi did not meet with the Copts in Rafah itself, but in a town approximately 30 miles away.

The city of Rafah, from which weapons are being smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip on a regular basis, has been effectively overrun by Jihadists who are even more extreme than the Muslim Brotherhood. If Morsi, Egypt’s president, can’t set foot in Rafah, there is simply no way he can help Coptic Christians to move back into the city.

The ethnic cleansing of Coptic Christians from Rafah is of great consequence. Rafah is the place where, according to tradition, Jesus Christ crossed into ancient Egypt soon after his birth to avoid his detection and murder by King Herod in Bethlehem in a story told in the Gospel of Matthew.

By acquiescing to the cleansing of Christians from Rafah – where one church (out of three in the city) has been recently destroyed – Morsi is cooperating with the Islamist project of separating Christianity from its historical and geographical roots in the Middle East.

So what happens next?

Eventually, the refugee crisis inside Egypt will spill over its borders and become an international problem.

How will Western leaders and intellectuals respond?

One commenter to the story suggests that Israel might take them.   But ‘Raymond in DC’ said this (I have no idea if this is true!):

Won’t happen. Egypt’s Cops number some 8 million, while Israel’s total population is roughly 7.5 million. Besides, when Jews did live in Egypt they weren’t especially well treated by Cops, and many are, as you suggest, as anti-Semitic as their Muslim brethren.

Christian homeschool family denied asylum in New Zealand

Editor:  This is cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report.

Not politically correct!   Therefore no asylum!

The German education gestapo still might get its hooks into this Christian family.  The homeschooling  family left Germany in 2008 and sought asylum from persecution in New Zealand which has now denied their request.  If deported to Germany their children might be removed from their home.

Thank goodness we haven’t reached this stage in America (yet!).  But, Bill Ayers and his comrades are working on it, here.

From Radio New Zealand:

Gerno and Andrea Schöneich claimed that the teaching of their four children about Darwinism, neo-Marxist critical theory and sex education in school was in conflict with their Christian beliefs.

The children have been homeschooled since arriving in New Zealand in 2008 and since applying for asylum Mr Schöneich has gained a work visa to teach at a Christian school.

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal said there is no international right to homeschooling and the family was not being persecuted.

It said education includes the elimination of ignorance and the improvement of access to scientific and technical knowledge.

The tribunal said there is no international right to homeschooling and the prosecution the family faced for keeping their children away from school did not amount to persecution.

Home Education Foundation national director Barbara Smith says the family could be deported if Mr Schöneich’s work visa is not renewed, and they would then be under threat in Germany of being fined, jailed or having their children removed.

We’ve learned from long experience elsewhere that whites trying to get out of South Africa or Christians seeking protection for their beliefs don’t get the same treatment as “refugees” of the politically-correct sort do.

Get ready for it! Syrians will be our next big batch of refugees…

…..along with the Rohingya (but that’s another story)!

Last week I reported that Iraq had agreed to open its borders to fleeing Syrians (Syrian Christians being killed by rebels).  But, it appears that they have done so with great reluctance because they fear that Al Qaeda (Sunnis) will flow in with the Syrians.  I think it’s a legitimate concern for the mostly Shiite government in Baghdad.

Here the New York Times has the Iraqi anti-refugee theme outlined.

QAIM, Iraq — Muhammed Muafak decided he had had enough when Syrian Army mortar shells struck near his house while his family was having the iftar meal to end the daily Ramadan fast. He packed up his 10-member household in Bukamal, the Syrian border town where they lived, and fled here to this Iraqi border town.

He expected a warm welcome. After all, his country had taken in 1.2 million Iraqis during their recent war, far more than any of Iraq’s other neighbors, and had allowed them to work, send their children to public schools and receive state medical care.

Instead, Mr. Muafak found himself and his family locked up in a school under guard with several hundred other Syrians, forbidden to leave to visit relatives in Iraq or to do anything else.

“We wish to go back to Syria and die there instead of living here in this prison,” said Abdul Hay Majeed, another Syrian held in a school building, along with 11 family members. Mr. Majeed was refused permission for that either, he and other refugees said.

Alone among Syria’s Muslim neighbors, Iraq is resisting receiving refugees from the conflict, and is making those who do arrive anything but comfortable. Baghdad is worried about the fighters of a newly resurgent Al Qaeda flowing both ways across the border, and about the Sunni opponents of the two governments making common cause.

The NYT never did like that Iraqi government:

The contrast with the situation during the war in Iraq is stark. [Assad's] Syria took in more Iraqis than any other neighbor, and was more hospitable than Jordan, which imposed tight restrictions on its 750,000 refugees’ freedom to work and use public services.

[....]

“If they don’t want us here, they should let us go back to our country,” said Thafir Khalel, who came Thursday. “It’s better to die there than be humiliated here.”

Looks like Iraqi government leaders have a legitimate fear!

Now, American troops have left Iraq, and Al Qaeda has switched sides, taking up arms against the Assad government.

Here is the story that link about switching sides sends you.

The presence of jihadists in Syria has accelerated in recent days in part because of a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border in Iraq. Al Qaeda, through an audio statement, has just made an undisguised bid to link its insurgency in Iraq with the revolution in Syria, depicting both as sectarian conflicts — Sunnis versus Shiites.

[.....]

One Qaeda operative, a 56-year-old known as Abu Thuha who lives in the Hawija district near Kirkuk in Iraq, spoke to an Iraqi reporter for The New York Times on Tuesday. “We have experience now fighting the Americans, and more experience now with the Syrian revolution,” he said. “Our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi Islamic state for all Muslims, and then announce our war against Iran and Israel, and free Palestine.”

Watch for it!  We have already given Syrians Temporary Protected Status and now I can hear the distant drumbeat—the clamor to bring more Syrians to America has begun (and it won’t be a clamor to save the Christians).  Will we be sure Al-Qaeda doesn’t sneak in here too?

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebel group killing Christian refugees

….and in a surprise move, the Iraqi government has opened its borders to Syrian refugees.

Here is the story from Catholic News Agency about the persecution of Christians by the rebel forces attempting to bring down the Assad regime:

Damascus, Syria, Jul 23, 2012 / 04:50 pm (CNA).- The Syrian rebels’ attack on Damascus has allowed radical Islamist groups to attack Iraqi refugees, Christians allegedly loyal to the Syrian government and other civilians.

Local Christians have expressed dismay and outrage at the attacks on defenseless civilians, a local source told Fides news agency.

The rebel group Liwa al-Islam, a Wahhabi group whose name means “The Brigade of Islam,” has claimed responsibility for killing top generals in President Bashar Assad’s government. On the morning of July 23, its members also killed an entire Christian family in the Damascus neighborhood of Bab Tuma.

Militants blocked the car of Nabil Zoreb, a Christian civil officer. They ordered him, his wife Violet, and his two sons George and Jimmy to get out of the car. The militants then killed them all.

In southeastern Damascus, Islamist fighters with the Muslim Brotherhood ally Jehad al Nosra attacked the homes of Iraqi refugees. They ransacked the homes, burned them and forced the occupants to leave.

The refugees said “gangs of Muslim terrorists attacked and chased us.”

Syrians to Iraq!

For years refugees fled Iraq for safe harbor in Syria, but now that the Muslim rebels affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood are on the move in Syria, the refugee flow will reverse direction as Iraq opens its borders to Syrians.

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered his country’s borders to be opened up to allow Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home to enter Iraq, his office said on Monday.

There is more, read it all.

Speaking of the Muslim Brotherhood, if you haven’t followed the controversy in the US where Reps. Michele Bachmann and four other members of Congress are under fire (from Republicans!) for asking for Inspector General investigations of several federal agencies to ascertain the depth of penetration by the Brotherhood into those agencies, see my other blog, here.