A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO THE REFUGEES

Over 500 Christian leaders have signed a letter addressed to President Trump expressing concern about his policies to limit the refugees:

·       As Christian pastors and leaders, we are deeply concerned by the recently announced moratorium on refugee resettlement. Our care for the oppressed and suffering is rooted in the call of Jesus to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” In the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus makes it clear that our “neighbor” includes the stranger and anyone fleeing persecution and violence, regardless of their faith or country.

·       As Christians, we have a historic call expressed over two thousand years, to serve the suffering. We cannot abandon this call now. We live in a dangerous world and affirm the crucial role of government in protecting us from harm and in setting the terms on refugee admissions. However, compassion and security can coexist, as they have for decades. For the persecuted and suffering, every day matters; every delay is a crushing blow to hope. https://welcomerefugees-worldrelief.nationbuilder.com/

Truly, there are numerous admonitions to love the alien, stranger, or foreigner:

·       “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:33-34; Deuteronomy 1:16-17; 10:18-19)

·       If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Exodus 12:48-49; Numbers 9:14)

What did it mean that “There shall be one law?” It didn’t simply mean that the sojourner would enjoy the same protections under the law. There was also the requirement that the sojourner would behave like the Israelite:

·       “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden… then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5)

Clearly, the Christian cannot appeal to the Mosaic Law to make a case for Islamic immigration. This law did not allow for the practice of a non-Israelite religion in Israel. If a case is to be made, it must be made from the NT. Romans 12 is often invoked:

·       Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.  Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21)

This requires me to love the Muslim even if I know that he has ISIS sympathies. I therefore applaud churches that are reaching out to Muslims with the Gospel. However, Romans 12 only pertains to individuals and their personal lives. We do not seek revenge, because God has entrusted vengeance to His ordained systems of justice. The government will exercise the “wrath of God,” (Romans 13:1-5) not us. They are to protect us so that we can live lives of love. They are to protect us against murderers, rapists, and those who want to dominate us through the imposition of sharia law – the very thing that Islam requires. The judge and the policeman are not to “turn the other cheek” and to forgive. They are not to empty the prisons of dangerous people. This is not their calling. Their calling is to protect and ensure the provision of justice. In order to do this, they must keep out of the country those who want to kill and rape. To not protect is to violate their calling – a calling we must uphold.

Indeed, the Christian is to play the “good Samaritan.” However, this isn’t the role of the government. Besides, the good Samaritan didn’t attempt to unleash upon his neighbors people who wanted to kill them.

Ibn Khaldun, a 15th century Tunisian historian, has spoken for the majority of the Islamic world by writing:

·       In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.

This teaching is derived straight from the Holy Koran:

·       “Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion (Islam) reigns supreme, (Koran Surah 8:37)

·       “When the Sacred Months are over, kill those who ascribe partners [like Jesus] to God wheresoever ye find them; seize them, encompass them, and ambush them; then if they repent and observe prayer and pay the alms, let them go their way’.” (Koran 4:5)

·       “…kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” (Koran 2:191) and “murder them and treat them harshly” (Koran 9:123), and “Strike off the heads of the disbelievers” (Koran 8:12, cp. 8:60).

Do most Muslims believe this way? Evidently! Surveys have demonstrated that the majority of Muslims still seek a worldwide Caliphate, which will place everyone under Islamic dominion.

It is these teachings that have led to the slaughter and destruction of the Church wherever Islam has gone. And where the Church still exists in Islamic lands, it must submit to Islamic domination.

It is clear that true Muslims do not respect our Constitution and the laws it embodies. They believe that they can only live under sharia. Why then do they come here? They might truly be oppressed, but they also believe in the Koran’s teachings about immigration Jihad:

·       Koran Surah 4:100-01: He who forsakes his home in the cause of Allah [Jihad], finds in the earth Many a refuge, wide and spacious: Should he die as a refugee from home for Allah and His Messenger, His reward becomes due and sure with Allah. And Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. When ye travel through the earth, there is no blame on you if ye shorten your prayers, for fear the Unbelievers May attack you: For the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies.

Believing Muslims regard all “unbelievers” as “open enemies.” Therefore, they will not be grateful for the shelter and hospitality that they are now receiving in the West. Instead, they will conjure up all forms of distortions to convince themselves that we are evil.

They also deceptively use “friendship” in order to advance the Islamic agenda. Meanwhile, a believing Muslim is not allowed to truly befriend the non-Muslim:

·       Koran 3:27 Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done [deceptively] to guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully.

·       Koran 5:54 O ye who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other.

How do Muslims interpret these verses? This comes from the following fatwa which quotes the Koran in support (www.koranqa.com; fatwa 59879):

·       “Undoubtedly the Muslim is obliged to hate the enemies of Allaah and to disavow them, because this is the way of the Messengers and their followers. Allaah says:

o   [60:4] “Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Ibraaheem (Abraham) and those with him, when they said to their people: ‘Verily, we are free from you and whatever you worship besides Allaah, we have rejected you, and there has started between us and you, hostility and hatred for ever until you believe in Allaah Alone’”

·       “Based on this, it is not permissible for a Muslim to feel any love in his heart towards the enemies of Allaah who are in fact his enemies too. Allaah says”:

o   [60:1] “O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies (i.e. disbelievers and polytheists) as friends, showing affection towards them, while they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth”

·       “But if a Muslim treats them with kindness and gentleness in the hope that they will become Muslim and will believe, there is nothing wrong with that, because it comes under the heading of opening their hearts to Islam. But if he despairs of them becoming Muslim, then he should treat them accordingly.”

Consequently, in view of Islamic deception, there are no reliable means to vet Muslim immigrants.

What does it mean to treat the non-Muslim “accordingly?” The many Koranic teachings on Jihad tell us:

·       Koran 2:191-193) - "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing...but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone. But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zalimun(the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)" (Translation is from the Noble Quran)

·       2:216 - "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not."

·       3:151 - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions [like Jesus] with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".

·       4:89 - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."

·       8:12 - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them."

·       9:5 - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them."

These are not verses about self-defense, but about worldwide conquest. What about the “peaceful” Koranic verses. As any Islamic scholar knows, those verses were uttered before Muhammad had an army. In his earlier years, the only way to win converts was through preaching a message of peace and acceptance. However, these verses have been replaced (the doctrine of “abrogation”) by later verses, according to the Koran:

·       2.106  “If we abrogate any verse or cause it to be forgotten, We will replace it by a better one or one similar.” [also 13.39]

In view of the threat and reality of Islam, are Christians mandated to be concerned? God is concerned. He cares deeply about justice and the protection of the innocent, so much so that He instituted a criminal justice system in the hearts of humanity:

·       Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. (Romans 13:1-5)

What does it mean for us to “be in subjection?” For one thing, we must uphold justice and the protection of the innocent. For this reason, we do not empty the prisons because people argue that “God is love.” This would not be an act of love towards the innocent, but an act of hatred.

Because we “love our neighbor as ourself,” we are required to seek their protection and welfare. We, therefore, do not want to see released criminals hunting them down or turning them into sex-slaves. This would not serve their welfare.

A Christian must be concerned about all those in need, but there are ways to fulfill this concern without unleashing horrors upon non-Muslims. Even now, Jews are fleeing Western Europe from Islamic violence in mass. Can we remain unconcerned about them?

No Christians and persecuted minorities allowed By Abraham H. Miller, Washington Times

I just had to repost this article which is no longer available on the Net.

Standing before the cameras in Turkey, President Obama found his safe place to indict half his countrymen for raising the issue of religion in their concern over his plan to open America’s gates to tens of thousands of Muslim “refugees” from Syria. Subjecting refugees to a religious test runs counter to American values, said Mr. Obama.

The Harvard Law School graduate got it wrong, again. As Andrew McCarthy notes, the immigration law explicitly requires religious considerations. How could it do otherwise? Religion is a prime reason why people are persecuted and expelled from their homelands.

The Obama administration’s Department of State also considers religion. Syrian Muslims showing up at the border with Mexico are being welcomed, but Chaldean Christians fleeing the horror and brutality of the Islamic State are being incarcerated in a federal detention center outside of San Diego, and Yazidis are not even on the administration’s radar.

Chaldean Christians and Yazidis cannot get into the United Nations refugee camps and, consequently, are not certified as refugees. You cannot be a refugee unless you are certified, and the Muslims, who dominate the camps, do not want the Christians and Yazidis in the camps. Still, the Muslims prefer refuge in predominantly Christian countries. Moreover, Muslims perpetuate their persecution of Christians in resettlement centers in Europe.

When you belong to a triumphal religion, hypocrisy is not a concern.

Mr. Obama’s statements in Turkey display profound ignorance mixed with contemptible hubris. Neither the Chaldeans nor the Yazidis present a security threat. In fact, the local Chaldean community in Southern California is more than willing to sponsor their brethren and affirm that they are not a security threat. Their pleas have fallen on the administration’s deaf ears.

The Muslims, in contrast, present a proven security threat. While not all Muslims are terrorists, it is true that Muslims are responsible for most of the terror and war in the world. The Islamic State has openly boasted that it has thousands of fighters among the refugees, and at least one of the terrorists responsible for the recent carnage in Paris was a refugee who entered Europe through Greece on a false Syrian passport. To date, the Islamic State has not made idle threats.

The fatuous retort from progressives is that terrorists are more likely to come from Muslim communities already here than from refugees. As if that were truly comforting.

To this is added the typical liberal attempt to blame the victim. It is our marginalization of Muslims, we are told, that causes them to run to Syria and become terrorists. One wonders if the liberal explanation for rape is that by rejecting men, women marginalize them and damage their self-esteem, causing them to rape, just as Muslims are similarly pushed to become fighters for the Islamic State.
The former example is just as nonsensical as the latter. But in the liberal mind, it is the victims who are responsible for what befalls them when the perpetrators are members of protected classes.

The best way to understand the potential consequences of bringing tens of thousands of Muslim refugees into America is to look at the consequences of Muslim immigration in other societies. In Europe, Muslims have created parallel societies. The European dream of a pluralistic, integrative, multicultural society has become a nightmare. Multiculturalism is a failure, and some European politicians have directly said so.

Sweden has become the rape capital of Europe, and the government has pressured the Swedish media to hide the ethnicity of the Muslim rapists, a policy that exacerbates the situation. Reality is always assumed to be worse when it is hidden. A similar Muslim-based rape culture, some of it directed at infidels, took root in England, and authorities disgracefully covered it up for years for fear of being labeled Islamophobes.

Despite denials by politicians, both London and Paris have no-go and Shariah-compliant areas enforced by Muslim thugs who have decided that their beliefs supersede the law.
While not all Muslims support these affronts to humanity, community policies are set not by the majority but by organized and militant minorities. And in Muslim communities, while ordinary people are trying to rear families and survive economically, the active minorities are busy forcing their fundamentalist view on society.

The greatest threat to America will not be some terrorist event with mass casualties. It will come from what happens next. That will be a call for a state of siege and a security protocol that will fundamentally tilt the society’s perpetual balance between freedom and order toward order. 
Ironically, liberals who want both the resettlement of refugees, whom the FBI tells us cannot be vetted, and a more open society will find that the two aspirations are contradictory. Every democratic society that finds itself in a state of siege eventually tilts the balance of freedom and order toward order, and those changes, once made, are difficult to undo.

If terrorists and fundamentalist Muslims comprise, let us say, 5 percent of all Muslim refugees, does not our sense of compassion impel us to take that risk? Every person will answer that question in terms of his own value system, but I wonder what ordinary Parisians, especially those who lost loved ones, would say about that risk.

If Americans want to show compassion and concern for refugees who are truly being brutalized, whose religions are being extinguished, and are not designated as refugees,they might begin by expending energy to convince this administration to accept the Chaldean Christians and Yazidis. We can guarantee that they present not even a remote risk to the security of the nation.

• Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati and a senior fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought.

FAVORING CHRISTIAN REFUGEES AND THE SEEKER-SENSITIVE CHURCH

At the G20 summit, President Obama stated:  

• “When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

However, Pam Geller countered:

• But it is Obama who is shameful. He’s the one who has applied a religious test to migrants. He has refused Christians seeking refuge from jihad genocide. He has refused to meet with Middle Eastern Christian leaders. They are the true victims of the jihadi wars.

• “Discrimination: 2,098 Syrian Muslim Refugees Allowed Into America, Only 53 Christians,” (John Nolte, Breitbart News, November 17, 2015)

Geller adds that only 53 Christian Syrian refugees have been allowed in since 2011. In light of this, it is Obama who is showing favoritism. Meanwhile, it is the Christians who are suffering the worst victimization.

• Syrian Christians have been singled out for the worst kind of persecution under ISIS, including mass beheadings that do not discriminate against innocent women and even small children.

Geller adds that:       

• Fleeing persecution at the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other jihadist groups, Syrian Christians generally avoid U.N. refugee camps because they are targeted there too.

• Most refugees considered for resettlement in the U.S. are referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

While Obama claims that showing preference for Christians is “not who we are,” this is what we have always been. The US has always discriminated in terms of who we accept into the country.

Meanwhile, Geller adds that:

• The F.B.I. has already admitted that it cannot adequately vet these refuges, and ISIS has promised to use the Syrian refugee process as a means to infiltrate the West with terrorists. Early reports indicate that two of the gunmen that hit Paris Friday snuck in through the refugee program.

It is therefore entirely irresponsible to bring in Muslim refugees who, in light of both religion and history, will practice Jihad on their adoptive country. According to the Koran, immigration is also a means of Jihad for the Muslim:

• He who emigrates (from his home) in the Cause of Allah [Jihad], will find on earth many dwelling places and plenty to live by. And whosoever leaves his home as an emigrant unto Allah and His Messenger, and death overtakes him, his reward is then surely incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And when you (Muslims) travel in the land, there is no sin on you if you shorten your Salat (prayer) if you fear that the disbelievers may attack you, verily, the disbelievers are ever unto you open enemies. (Koran 4:100-101) 

Meanwhile, Obama fails to acknowledge that Christian refugees will not cut off heads or bring down buildings or try to impose their ways on our nation. Instead, it is the Christians who are likely to make the most positive adjustment and contributions to the US. And so why shouldn’t this be a consideration!

Meanwhile, there are other possible humanitarian responses to the Muslim refugees. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said:

·       "It's absurd — just think about it, when the Germans say they will spend billions on providing for the new arrivals instead of giving the money to the countries around the crisis zone, where they [migrants] should be stopped in the first place. It would be better for everyone. They wouldn't come here. It would cost less. And our approach couldn't be called into question morally either."

However, in September, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve attacked the idea of preferring Christian refugees:

·       "I really don't understand this distinction," Cazeneuve said. "I condemn it, and I think it's dreadful. A whole series of minorities are being persecuted in the situation in Syria.”

How many more Paris attacks will be necessary for these multicultural zealots to rethink their position! Even now, they admit that they have lost control of the situation.

However, it is not them alone who need to do some re-thinking. Seeker-sensitive churches, springing up in metropolitan areas, also think it illegitimate to favor Christian refugees. Often, they will not even single out Christian refugees for prayer.

However, loving their brethren is to take preference over all other expressions of Christian love (Galatians 6:10). Even Jesus showed favoritism, identifying so closely with His Brethren that when they suffered, He too suffered:

·        “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

For Jesus, the way to love the world and to draw them to the light was to demonstrate the light of our love for our brethren:

·       "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

·       "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

The best way to love the world is to start by loving our own. Although such a conclusion is politically distasteful to younger Christians, it will not be so if we would only think about it for a bit. The best way to love our children is to love our spouse, which would create a loving family environment. Likewise, the best way to love our community is to love our children, thereby raising responsible and loving neighbors.

This doesn’t mean that we do not love our neighbor’s children. However, to put their welfare above that of our own children will create bitterness and, eventually, brokenness. Such “love” will also be seen as hypocritical. To care for my neighbor’s wife as I do my own can only bring forth bad results.

To bring in dangerous Muslim refugees who will murder, according to their religion and for the sake of imposing their Caliphate, will also engender bitterness and dissolution.

To ignore these very apparent realities will bring great disrepute on the church. Instead, we are to provide light and leadership and not a pathetic pandering to the prevailing culture.

In light of this, giving must be performed with great discretion and wisdom. It must be conducted in a way that doesn’t endanger the innocent. Bringing in tens of thousands of Muslims into the USA is a sure prescription for violence, and it is antithetical to Christian love. Instead, our hearts must go out first of all to the Christian refugees - the ones who will make a positive adjustment to the West - without forgetting charity to others.