This is a contribution to the synchroblog series on Syria at the MennoNerds network, of which this blog is a member.
A couple of days ago the leader of the main racist party here in Sweden was holding a very weird speech. Besides stating that you cannot separate what’s Christian and what’s Swedish, and demanding that Swedish churches must be built with Swedish material, he used the horrible sarin gas attack in Syria as an argument for not receiving refugees from there. Yeah, you heard me. He said that since the crisis in Syria is so severe, it is horrible for the Swedish government to waste money on asylum immigration instead of supporting the refugees in their local areas, i.e. refugee camps.
Perhaps he missed the news about Syrians wanting to return to the conflict because the circumstances in their Jordanian refugee camps are killing them.
I mean, God bless the UNHCR, we should really give as much as we can to them right now, but they can never ever offer the same security, welfare and peace that a Western country can. It’s ridiculously stupid to say that it’s cheaper to help refugees in their local areas than welcoming them to the West, because the results are extremely cheap as well. And no, the refugees that manage to get to a Western country don’t want to be deported to a refugee camp. If we really care about Syrian lives, we must welcome them to our countries.
Atmeh refugee camp, Syria (Photo credit: FreedomHouse)
I am writing this because of something that really got me upset yesterday. We all know that the US together with some other countries want to do a military intervention in Syria as a respond to the sarin gas attack. Officially, the US wants to portrait itself as doing something humanitarian, an altrustic act of love in order to save and protect Syrian civilians. Well, let’s see how humanitarian they really are, I thought, and googled how many Syrian refugees the US has received.
The result chocked me. Out of the two million Syrian refugees, United States wants to receive 2000. That’s 0,1 %. As a contrast, Jordan has, as a neighbouring country, received over half a million refugees (much against their will of course, but what do you do when these amounts of people storm your border?). Needless to say, the US has a little bit more money that Jordan.
This is insane. And yet, 2000 refugees is an increase for poor America, during the previous two years of the Syrian war they’ve received 90. 90!! And all of them had to go through a long process in proving that they aren’t terrorists, just as the 2000 newcomers will have to do. Oh, did I mention that they’re mostly women and children?
The humanitarian talk is rubbish. The US clearly finds it easier to kill Syrians than to welcome them to their society. As a Christian, I find this as an abomination for the Lord, and I will pray for the spirit of hospitality to fill the hearts of Western politicians, and for their sound mind to come back in place. We don’t need more fighting. We need more love.
Related articles
- One Million Children are Now Syrian Refugees (mombloggersforsocialgood.com)
- Red Cross deploying field hospital for Syrian refugees in Jordan (redcrosstalks.wordpress.com)
- Assault on Syria: cui bono, cui prodest? (shelteredhope.wordpress.com)
- On the War Path to Damascus (abnormalanabaptist.wordpress.com)
- Life course interrupted~ Syrian refugee (mimokhairphotography.com)
Charismactivism 
Don’t confuse our current US leader who has become a dictator of sorts, with the US people. The US (Citizens and majority of politicians) does NOT want to intervene in Syria at all and the populace would much rather offer support than missiles. Nor do the US citizens even understand what the intent in Syria is by Obama. Nothing is clear. Nor do we consider our government any part of our Christianity. Obama himself declared that that the US is no longer a Christian nation, and sadly, he is making sure that stays true.
Hello bro!
I would defenitely not call Obama a dictator, especially not concerning this issue since he is waiting for a decision in congress, which represents the people, before he strikes. However, the American democratic system has severe flaws and is quite underdeveloped compared to many other democracies. Lots of power are given to one person, the President, and in practice only two people from the entire American population have access to that position. Furthermore, the election process is very flawed; this was visible when George W Bush became president even though Al Gore got more votes. Such a thing would never happen here in Sweden!
God bless you!
Obama is waiting as a ploy, and had already decided he would do what he wanted. Also, keep in mind, America is not a Democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic. The flaws that you are seeing are not in the system, but in the way the progressive elite here have twisted it into something it’s not, hoping to, as Obama said, Transform the Nation. The idea that it’s a democracy is one of those, if we say it enough times people will buy into it things. I say he has become a dictator not just because of this situation, but because of how much he has over run our constitution and the way our government was set up, has put in place and made up positions to usurp the checks and balances, etc., and how he and his Democratic Elite have crammed so many things down the electorates throats that were clearly against our will. And unfortunately, as I said earlier, our Congress is no longer acting lie they represent the will of the people. They are out of touch. Way out of touch. What you see on the media is NOT the way things are. In fact the American media is probably more corrupted than most third world countries. It’s good to hear things are better in Sweden, because I know a lot of people looking for somewhere else to go if things keep progressing. My hope is for revival and awakening.
[…] own racist party here, the Sweden Democrats, whose representatives compare islam with nazism and want to deport Syrian refugees to Jordan instead of Sweden. Fortunately though, the party has neither been a part of our government like in Norway, nor […]
[…] reasons to leave their country right now, do not have open access to the West. The United States only allows 2000 Syrians to enter, after making sure they aren’t terrorists. Sweden is one of very few countries within the […]
[…] own racist party here, the Sweden Democrats, whose representatives compare islam with nazism and want to deport Syrian refugees to Jordan instead of Sweden. Fortunately though, the party has neither been a part of our government like in Norway, nor […]