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Spurned by U.S. and Facing Danger Back Home, Iranian Christians Fear the Worst
NY Times ^ | MARCH 1, 2018 | MIRIAM JORDAN

Posted on 03/01/2018 12:16:44 PM PST by daniel1212

They sold their homes and possessions, quit their jobs, and left their country — they thought for good. The Iranians, mainly members of their nation’s Christian minorities, were bound for a new life in America after what should have been a brief sojourn in Austria for visa processing.

But more than a year later, some 100 of them remain stranded in Vienna, their savings drained, their lives in limbo and the promise of America dead.

Even as the Trump administration continued to pledge help to religious minorities in the Middle East, many of whom face persecution, the United States denied their applications for refugee status in recent weeks.

“It’s unexplainable,” said H. Avakian, 35, an ethnic Armenian Christian who arrived in Austria from Iran 15 months ago and asked that his first name be withheld out of fear for his safety. “Suddenly they said, ‘Now you can’t come.’ We don’t know why.”

Returning to Iran after an attempt to move to the United States would endanger their lives, he and other applicants said, because the government would regard them as enemies of the state.

The Iranians applied to resettle in the United States under guidelines set by a 1989 law known as the Lautenberg Amendment, which offers safe haven to persecuted religious minorities...According to the amendment, the government must justify a denial “to the maximum extent feasible.”

But no reason was given..One family was conditionally approved for refugee status in a March 2017 eligibility letter reviewed by The New York Times. Last month, they were given an ineligibility notice that said their application “has been denied as a matter of discretion.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: christians; immigration; iran; persecution
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Sound like the work of some of Obama's people.
1 posted on 03/01/2018 12:16:44 PM PST by daniel1212
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To: daniel1212
The Iranians applied to resettle in the United States under guidelines set by a 1989 law known as the Lautenberg Amendment, which offers safe haven to persecuted religious minorities...According to the amendment, the government must justify a denial “to the maximum extent feasible.”

Politics and religion aside, they should have waited for a "yes" answer before committing to the move.

2 posted on 03/01/2018 12:34:33 PM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: daniel1212

Iranian Christians would be great people to have around. They know what it’s like to live surrounded by m*slims, who rape, slice necks, throw gays off buildings, and murder.


3 posted on 03/01/2018 12:56:15 PM PST by I want the USA back (Free Republic keeps me from going insane in a world that has chosen insanity over reason.)
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To: WayneS
Politics and religion aside, they should have waited for a "yes" answer before committing to the move.

It seems that they were conditionally approved, thus it says, "they were bound for a new life in America after what should have been a brief sojourn in Austria for visa processing," but that they must first leave their country in order to be further screened:

Applicants are vetted before they apply for an Austrian transit visa. Once in Vienna, they continue the screening process, pass interviews with Homeland Security and undergo medical exams. Typically, it takes a few months to complete the process, and the approval rate is close to 100 percent.

Something seems amiss, but note that "evangelical Christians, who make up more than 90 percent of the Lautenberg pool and hail mainly from Ukraine, continue to arrive as usual, but these "Iranian Christians" seem to be a aberrant sect, Suhaib Nashi, president of the Mandaean Society of America, said he feared for several Mandean families in the Vienna group. Like the Baha’i, Mandeans, who follow the teachings of John the Baptist, lack even the nominal protections of the Iranian Constitution and are thus particularly vulnerable to persecution and pressure to convert to Islam.

4 posted on 03/01/2018 12:58:02 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212

Stupid article by a stupid paper.


5 posted on 03/01/2018 1:15:45 PM PST by Louis Foxwell (Islam is Satans finest work.)
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To: daniel1212

I don’t understand this. They escaped to a safe haven. And since they are safe where they are, why can’t they stay there, get jobs,and start a new life just like they want to do here. They’ve been there for over a year and they won’t have to move again, relocate their kids in schools or neighborhoods by finding a residence. Therefore, they have accomplished their goal of finding a safe haven.

Looking at it the other way, they used to call this having your cake and eating it, too. In other words, once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot or should not have or want more than one deserves or is reasonable. The proverb’s meaning is similar to the phrases “you can’t have the best of both worlds.”

rwood


6 posted on 03/01/2018 1:24:11 PM PST by Redwood71
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To: daniel1212

Lord have mercy ! The New York Times are protecting Iranian Christians ? Because Trump isn’t ? Whatever would be their reason to charge this ?


7 posted on 03/01/2018 1:30:37 PM PST by mosesdapoet (Mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin another gem posted in the wilderness)
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To: Redwood71

I don’t understand this. They escaped to a safe haven. And since they are safe where they are, why can’t they stay there, get jobs,and start a new life just like they want to do here.


Austria may not accept Christian refugees. Muslim ones, no problem. I think they’d be smart to head for Germany. Or France.


8 posted on 03/01/2018 1:36:10 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: daniel1212

In the old days a Congress Critter would sponsor a special immigration bill just for such people. Where are they now?

Of course, these people should receive no taxpayer money. But if Catholic Charities or World Vision or Salvation Army type charities use private money, God bless.


9 posted on 03/01/2018 1:58:59 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: daniel1212

The Mandaean religion is a Gnostic religion (the only surviving one). They revere John the Baptist along with a number of Biblical figures (but not Jesus), but it doesn’t look like they are actually descended from the real-life disciples of John the Baptist (who wasn’t a gnostic).


10 posted on 03/01/2018 2:32:27 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Redwood71

My thought perzactly.


11 posted on 03/01/2018 3:04:42 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Redwood71; sparklite2
I don’t understand this. They escaped to a safe haven. And since they are safe where they are, why can’t they stay there, get jobs,and start a new life just like they want to do here. They’ve been there for over a year and they won’t have to move again, relocate their kids in schools or neighborhoods by finding a residence. Therefore, they have accomplished their goal of finding a safe haven. Looking at it the other way, they used to call this having your cake and eating it, too. In other words, once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot or should not have or want more than one deserves or is reasonable. The proverb’s meaning is similar to the phrases “you can’t have the best of both worlds.”

"why can’t they stay there, get jobs,and start a new life just like they want to do here?" The problem is that you did not read the part of the article where is states that,

Enacted in 1989 to enable Jews and Christian minorities from the former Soviet Union to settle in the United States as refugees, the Lautenberg Amendment was expanded in 2003 to include Iranian religious minorities. Austria agreed to serve as a transit point. The applicants cannot work, attend school or receive government benefits while they wait for the United States to process their cases.

The real question is why would the NYT be advocating for them, which is the issue of the next post.

12 posted on 03/01/2018 5:12:51 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: mosesdapoet; redleghunter; Springfield Reformer; kinsman redeemer; BlueDragon; metmom; boatbums; ...
Lord have mercy ! The New York Times are protecting Iranian Christians ? Because Trump isn’t ? Whatever would be their reason to charge this ?

Likely because this case provides fodder for their counter-Trump cannon, and perhaps because they are upset that evangelicals seem to be favored over a heretical group (see below post), stating,

Refugee resettlement officials said that evangelical Christians, who make up more than 90 percent of the Lautenberg pool and hail mainly from Ukraine, continue to arrive as usual.

13 posted on 03/01/2018 5:13:35 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: Verginius Rufus
The Mandaean religion is a Gnostic religion (the only surviving one). They revere John the Baptist along with a number of Biblical figures (but not Jesus), but it doesn’t look like they are actually descended from the real-life disciples of John the Baptist (who wasn’t a gnostic).

a cosmic Father and Mother; The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who produces it in similitude to his own shape; Planets and stars influence fate and human beings, and are also places of detention after death. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism#Beliefs

No wonder the NYT times would prefer them over evangelicals (see above post).

14 posted on 03/01/2018 5:13:43 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: I want the USA back
Iranian Christians would be great people to have around. They know what it’s like to live surrounded by m*slims, who rape, slice necks, throw gays off buildings, and murder.

Iranian Christians would be, if they were, but Mandaeans are not Christians based on the definitive source of that title.

15 posted on 03/01/2018 5:17:43 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212

What is key is her phrase “while in custody of the Justice Dept. Inspector General—”. You can go from there. I did. But is this worth following?


16 posted on 03/01/2018 6:49:51 PM PST by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: imardmd1
What is key is her phrase “while in custody of the Justice Dept. Inspector General—”. You can go from there. I did. But is this worth following?

Where are you reading this phrase?

17 posted on 03/01/2018 7:29:02 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212
Ah, I was supposed to be answeing a different title! A sloppy mistke of selecting yours. The presumed article was about http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3636382/posts?page=27#27

Sorry!

18 posted on 03/01/2018 8:58:25 PM PST by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: daniel1212
...their savings drained...

HMMMmmm...

Could they not find a job in a year?

19 posted on 03/02/2018 4:37:28 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Redwood71

Ya want more cake?
Learn to BAKE!


20 posted on 03/02/2018 4:38:38 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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