Mark Gibson: I have, for the past year, been editing the “World” page of the Chronicle, scanning daily through the headlines in the Associated Press news feed looking for stories. My formula is fairly simple: One story with art is “lead,” another goes below if there’s room and the most interesting tidbits flow down one side.
Sometimes I run the big story of the day, the one people are talking most about: Ebola in Africa, War in the Middle East, Nuclear Meltdowns in Japan.
Syria has often been the story of the day, four years of war and destruction and brutal inhumanity.
For some time now, one of the big stories has been the refugee crisis as refugees flee the destruction of their country. The stories, and the photographs, have been heartbreaking.
Humanitarian agencies and neighboring countries have been overwhelmed, refugees have been dying in increased numbers.
It’s been an ongoing story, one turned to regularly as the crisis “unfolds” over the news wire.
Then on Sept. 2 a news photograph of a young boy lying dead on the beach was transmitted over the wires of media outlets.
His name was Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old, who died along with his 5-year-old brother and their mother when their small rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece.
The photos were taken by Nilufer Demir of DHA, a Turkish news agency, and distributed by The Associated Press and other news agencies.
Suddenly we are talking about Syria again, and wondering what role our country should be taking.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports there are 4 million, 87 thousand and 139 “persons of concern” fleeing Syria.
According to recent reports on National Public Radio, the United States, after four years of war, has taken in 2,000 Syrian refugees.
Americans, and the world, are now questioning why so few. Given the economic and political muscle of the U.S., we should be offering refuge to at least the 10,000 that President Barack Obama wants to bring in for resettlement in 2016.
Taking in more Syrians has the potential for risk — the fear of inadvertently offering refuge to extremists is real — but potential for great gain is there as well, as incoming Syrians connect with Americans on a personal level and learn the principles of freedom and democracy first hand.
Assuming, of course, that they are not met with hate and bigotry.
America has long been a melting pot and haven for refugees facing extreme, life-threatening risk in their own country.
Many people from around the world have come, and today are an important part of mainstream America.
The Syrian people have the potential of further enriching America’s culture, economy, and presence in the world.
RaeLynn Ricarte: America was founded by religious refugees fleeing persecution from European rulers and has long been a haven for oppressed people from around the world.
The Statue of Liberty, also referred to as the Mother of Exiles, has this quote on a plaque: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
In light of all that is American, how do we not take in refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria?
The answer, of course, is that we try to look for a way to help in this crisis.
However, we do it in a measured fashion that takes in the potential threat to national security from Islamic State (IS) fighters who infiltrate their ranks.
This is a very real danger that needs to be taken seriously by the White House and Congress.
Warnings about IS soldiers setting up recruiting operations in the U.S. and other countries have been given by a range of officials, from Pope Francis to James Clapper, director of National Intelligence.
Al Jazeera reported this month that Lebanon has become the home of more than one million Syrian refugees since the war began in 2011.
Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bou Saab is now expressing worry that, if one in 50 of the immigrants — a consrevative estimate — are members of a terrorist organization, it would be “more than enough” to bring death and chaos to Western countries.
In February, an alleged IS operative was quoted by several media outlets saying: “It’s our dream that there should be a caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world and we will have it soon, God willing.” He claimed there were already more than 4,000 trained IS gunmen living in Europe.
“Hijarah” is the Islamic doctrine of immigration that is a form of stealth jihad.
The goal of infiltration is to use the banners of “tolerance” and “civil rights” to insert elements of Sharia, which is Islamic law, into Western societies. Muslims are encouraged to accomplish this by demanding cultural changes and attacking people who discuss the negative aspects of Sharia as “racists” and “Islamophobes.”
By exploiting the West’s respect for “multiculturalism,” stealth jihad is seen as a way to gradually sweep away Western values of legal equality, freedom of speech, and much more. Of all the legal systems in the world today, Sharia is the most rigid, especially against women.
Given the potential for subversion and openly violent acts by IS fighters, we must take the time to very carefully check into the background of Syrian refugees.
Obama wants to accelerate the resettlement process but his first responsibility is to protect the 321 million Americans that he works for.
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