Posted on 02/25/2006 7:10:24 PM PST by Imnotalib
KRASNODAR, Russia, July 24, (IslamOnline.net) - The United States has agreed to grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23.
The first 11-strong batch of the Ahiska Muslims, living in the Russian province of Krasnodar, left for Geneva on Thursday, July 22, before flying to Philadelphia, reported Novie Izvestia.
It added that the Muslims would be housed near the grand mosque in Philadelphia.
The paper recalled that Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev was notified of the American decision on February 15.
Izvestia said the Russian government does not treat Ahiska Muslims as citizens and has not therefore given them passports or IDs.
An official in Krasnodar administration had told Interfax on Tuesday, July 20, that of the 11,999 Ahiska Muslims living in the region, 4,943 have received Russian citizenship and 744 have embarked on Russian naturalization procedures.
He added that more than 5,000 others have expressed a desire to emigrate to the United States.
Earlier, Chingiz Neiman-zade, chairman of Vatan, a Meskheti Turks association based in Georgia, said the United States had offered to accept the Ahiska Muslims living in Krasnodar as immigrants.
"On February 16, the International Migration Organization began an information program in Krasnodar to explain the terms for the resettlement of the Ahiska Muslims in the U.S.," he told Chicago Tribune on Thursday, July 22.
"The immigrants will be provided with housing and furniture, they will be helped to learn the English language and to complete formalities needed for residence in the US, which is especially important, and have been promised life-long welfare allowances for pensioners and the disabled."
Happiness
Ahiska Muslims were happy with the American offer.
"This decision marks a great change in our life", said Tepeshon Swanidze, leader of the Ahiska Muslim community in Russia.
"We thank the US administration for its humanitarian decision", he added.
Ahiska Muslims , originally hailing from Anatolia, were exiled from their homeland after Russia seized the region of Ahiska following its 1828-1829 war with the Ottoman Empire.
Many Ahiska Muslims were forced to seek refugee in Erzurum in eastern Turkey after being persecuted by the Russian Cesar for supporting the Ottoman Empire.
Facing a similar fate under the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Ahiska Muslims fled to Uzbekistan in 1944.
One year later, they went to Azerbaijan where they currently reside.
Turkish and Azeri parliamentarians had recently appealed for an international intervention to pressure the Georgian government into allowing the return of Ahiska Muslims.
Ahiska became part of Georgia in 1918.
What kind of moslem is this?
bump
It's no joke. Our church has been supporting one of these families since May 2005. I've spoken with the father of the refugee family; he's real, and so is his family. Very difficult resettlement.
Is there more than one kind? Actually they're Russians; probably a more peaceable kind of Muslim, you know, like Chechans.
You would think that the oil-rich Arab nations would take them to prevent them from being subjected to humiliation at the hands of Americans.
"Obviously it worked."
ditto
And please do not compare this to European immigration during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Those people, including three of my own grandparents, came here to take their chances in a Federation of Republics governed by rugged individualists, premised upon self-reliance, not subsidization by the Federal Government. That started later, and has had a very deleterious effect on the quality of immigration. This sort of thing does not scan, and cannot be justified to anyone who understands the concept of a Nation.
These people may be admirable people. That does not mean that they will fit into the traditional American ethos. Indeed, the promised subsidization and spoon feeding, should go a long way to make sure that they do not. I will not take up more bandwith, here. Anyone interested in my views of proper immigration policy is referred to Immigration & The American Future.
William Flax
We're gonna a need a new country to call our own. Bush and his muslim pals are taking over this one...and there's nothing we can do about it.
"Our church has been supporting one of these families since May 2005"
...Osama say stupid infidels will finance their own destruction.
Appears so, to them anyway. Two kinds are trying to start up a civil war in Iraq now.
I'll definitely check out your reference.
The biggest difference in today's Islamic immigrants and those of the past, in my view, was that those of the past wanted to become Americans and take advantage of the opportunities here.
Islamic immigrants today want to take advantage of the opportunity to use America. They don't want to assimilate in any way, indeed most of them don't even want to associate with other Americans except when they're making money.
We have a lot of local Muslim docs. They don't become citizens, don't get involved in any local activity other than the local mosque, and don't pay taxes. Then they bring their parents over, who then get on Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs.
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