Posted on 11/23/2015 9:04:48 AM PST by Trumpinator
AP November 20, 2015, 12:55 PM
In America's Little Syria, a divide on accepting refugees
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A few days ago, a pastor asked Syrian-born restaurant owner Marie Jarrah to donate food to a welcoming event for recently arrived Syrian refugees. Jarrah, who said she regularly helps people in need, declined.
Like many of Allentown's establishment Syrians, she doesn't think it's a good idea to bring refugees to the city. She clung to that view even before last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. "Problems are going to happen," said Jarrah, co-owner of Damascus Restaurant in a heavily Syrian enclave.
As debate intensifies nationally over the federal government's plan to accept an additional 10,000 refugees from war-ravaged Syria, a similar argument is taking place in Allentown - one with a sectarian twist.
Pennsylvania's third-largest city is home to one of the nation's largest populations of Syrians. They are mostly Christian and, in no small number, support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - a dynamic that's prompting some of them to oppose the resettlement of refugees, who are Muslim and say they fled violence perpetrated by the Assad regime.
Aziz Wehbey, an Allentown auto dealer and president of the American Amarian Syrian Charity Society, worries some Syrian refugees might have taken part in the fighting in Syria's civil war and have "blood on their hands."
"We need to know who we are welcoming in our society," said Wehbey, who immigrated to the United States a quarter-century ago and became a citizen.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
God bless Donald Trump!
I wouldn’t imagine the average immigrant who had made it to the US would want more immigrants following them in.
Trump (& Cruz) need to co-opt these people & make them part of their argument to nail down the border to take away the left’s beloved race card.
This gigantic mass of foreigners is neither Syrian or Refugees.
If the Syrians already here don’t want this rabble flooding in, that in itself should tell you something.
But tone-deaf and obstinate as ever, the Current Occupant has an agenda to fill, and now, only about fourteen months to complete the tasks that still lie ahead for him.
Outta control, or what?
Cloward-Piven on a global scale.
It’s because Assad protected religious minorities, including Christians, from Islamic extremists.
The reason some Muslim Syrians claim they were persecuted by the Assad regime is because they belonged to a group that was dedicated to overthrowing it and establishing an Islamic government in Syria.
Hispanics here legally feel the same way about illegals.
Just not part of the agenda so it isn’t reported.
In general, “Mexican-Americans” apparently take a dim view of illegal aliens from Mexico.
Now we find “Syrian-Americans” apparently taking a dim view of refu-jihadists.
I think they probably know something.
OF course they don’t!
The current Syrian ‘refugees’ are the people they left Syria to get away from!
Obama hopes to start a Syrian civil war in the US ?
The area has a thriving community of Lebanese Christians. I’d imagine they left Lebanon for a good reason was back when.
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