America welcoming far more Muslim refugees than Christian refugees, ACLJ says

Suzette Gutierrez Cachila Friday, June 17, 2016

The number of Muslim refugees being processed in the U.S. far surpasses that of Christian refugees, according to an organization that promotes and protects religious freedom.

Syrian refugee families wait to register their information at the U.S. processing centre for Syrian refugees, during a media tour held by the U.S. embassy in Amman, Jordan. | Reuters/Muhammad Hamed

The American Center for Law and Justice said in a recent report that since the beginning of the year, the U.S. has processed 11,086 Muslim refugees from Iraq and 5,345 Muslim refugees from Syria. On the other hand, only 433 Christian refugees from Iraq and 28 Christian refugees from Syria have been processed.

All in all, the U.S. has accepted 16,431 Muslim refugees and only 461 Christian refugees. The ACLJ said the figures were taken from the Refugee Processing Center.

The figures appear to belie the administration's stance that religion should not be a consideration in granting a person refugee status.

The ACLJ said when Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer was asked about what he can propose to help Christian refugees who want to escape the genocide carried out against them by ISIS, he said religion should not be part of the criteria, but a "fair" criteria should be in place.

He said this despite the discrepancy between the number of Muslim and Christian refugees from Syria who were admitted in the U.S.

"First, religion is one of the essential elements of refugee status under both U.S. and international law," the ACLJ said in the report. "A 'refugee' is someone fleeing because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group."

Not considering the religion of a person applying for refugee status is against national and international laws, ACLJ explained.

The organization said ISIS' intention to kill Christians specifically because they are Christians should also be taken into account.

The influx of Muslim refugees into the U.S. is part of President Obama's directive to bring in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees this year. However, some people have expressed concern about the U.S. letting in a lot of Muslim refugees, citing ISIS' threats to infiltrate the country.

"I take ISIS at its word when it says we want to use the refugee program to infiltrate the West," said Rep. Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, CBN News reported.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies President Clifford May said the concern is not just about those who are coming in but also those who could be recruited from the inside.

"There were only a handful of people involved in the 9/11 attacks. Just a handful. Is that okay? Are we willing to have a 9/11 attack every one year, every three years, every five years?" May asked.