The Islamic State Wants You to Reject Refugees
But I oppose closing the door to refugees because, among other reasons, that's what the Islamic State wants.
The refugee flow is "anathema" to the Islamic State, writes Aaron Y. Zelin, who catalogs the group's messages at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, because it is "undermining the group's message that its self-styled caliphate is a refuge."
If its conquered land really was a refuge, then hundreds of thousands of people would surely be settling in instead of risking their lives to get out, Zelin writes. But hostile reaction to refugees, he notes, "only bolsters (the Islamic State's) contentions and risks spurring future, avoidable tensions."
Counterterrorism analyst Harleen Gambhir speculates in a Washington Post op-ed that the Islamic State deliberately "set a trap" for Europe with the Paris attacks to put Muslims in the West into a dilemma: Either leave the faith or travel to the Islamic State to supposedly "escape persecution from the Crusader governments and citizens."
That would fit the fanatical Islamic State's apocalyptic prophesy of a great war with the West. Some knowledgeable souls even have suggested that the organization may have planted the passport near the Paris bomber to further inflame anti-refugee sentiments.
In fact, there's nothing easy about this country's refugee screening process. Those who arrive from Syria receive extra rigorous attention from multiple government agencies, including the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. Although the agencies won't reveal much detail for security reasons, the process can take years, which leaves many legitimate refugees in a legal limbo.
What's the answer? We should indeed have a rigorous screening process. We can recognize fully the religious nature of the Islamic State's terror war without demonizing the vast majority of Muslims who have not fallen for its propaganda.
Mainly we should avoid making enemies of people who should be our allies in our campaigns against the Islamic State. Otherwise, as we used to say after the Sept. 11 attacks, the terrorists win.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
