After Paris was shaken by a series of attacks social media erupted with words of kindness and promises of prayer. Facebook was filled with the French flag and Instagram was an endless feed of Eiffel Tower photos. Unfortunately, the well wishes faded as more information regarding the attackers began to surface. People were so blindsided by the outcome of the attacks and what might happen now that they forgot about the victims.
It is expected that after a terrorist attack people are going to be scared and take shots at those responsible. Instead, I have seen some pretty negative things on Facebook regarding Syrian refugees, Muslims and even President Obama. We should not be attacking the victims or the religion but the perpetrators of this heinous crime: ISIS. It’s disheartening to see my friends act this way on social media. I thought with all that is going on in the world people would be more understanding and kind. We need to look at the Syrian refugee crisis not as a political issue but as a human rights issue.
I want to clarify some things regarding this issue.
What people are surprised to learn is that Syria as a country is not ISIS, but ISIS is in Syria. Yes, Syria is a complicated nation and has issues of its own that I will touch upon but the country is not ISIS. ISIS, or ISIL, is a terrorist group that was formed in 1999 under a different name and has had many names since. ISIS has a presence in many countries but controls most of Syria and Iraq. The fact that ISIS is present in Syria does not give anyone the right to stereotype all Syrians - or Muslims - as terrorists.
Most of the victims of ISIS are other Muslims. An estimate of 12.2 million, innocent civilians are in immediate risk of death at the hands of ISIS in Syria alone – 5.6 million of those are children, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Not every Syrian is lucky enough to have the chance to seek refuge elsewhere - ISIS has killed thousands of Syrians. In regards to those who ask why Muslim countries don’t take the refugees: they have. Jordan has taken in over 600,000, Turkey has taken roughly 2 million, and Lebanon which just experienced its own ISIS attack has taken in 1.1 million Syrian refugees, according to CNN. Many other nations have promised to take refugees as well. In fact, France is still going to take Syrian refugees even after the attacks.
As we know, France conducted a major military operation against ISIS the day after the attacks. France bombed the ISIS controlled city of Raqqa, Syria. Some of the locations targeted were major ISIS control centers. Some may ask: why didn’t the U.S just bomb these locations?Well, ISIS decided to locate most of their headquarters in Raqqa because of the large civilian population. If the U.S were to bomb this city there would be many civilian casualties. President Obama has criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the treatment of the Syrian people at the hands of the government. Therefore, if the U.S was to conduct military strikes that would almost definitely kill Syrian civilians President Obama would be doing exactly what he is condemning Assad for doing.
I want to talk a little more about President Bashar al-Assad because the Syrian people aren’t just fleeing from ISIS but they are fleeing their government. Since 2011, Syria has been in a brutal civil war. The war was sparked within the context of the Arab Spring - in the simplest terms, a series of government protests in Arab nations that ultimately resulted in major government shifts in the nations where the protests were held. Since the Arab Spring was so successful in other countries, the Syrian people decided it was time to act on their concerns with their president and out came the Syrian Civil War.
President Assad has been accused of multiple human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. There are reports that anyone who opposes the Assad Regime is sent to prison. Some human rights groups believe there could be around 200,000 of these political prisoners, according to The Daily Beast. The Assad Regime is also believed to have tortured and killed ten Europeans, conducted attacks on hospitals and Stephen Rapp, the United States Ambassador–at-Large for Human Rights Issues, goes far enough to say that some of the regimes crimes are the worst seen since Nazi Germany. In Aug. 2013 a suburban area around Damascus, Syria was attacked and the weapon was sarin gas. Syrian rebels claimed the government was to blame but the government denied that claim. To this day, the perpetrator is unknown but regardless; innocent civilians were the victims of a chemical attack.
I understand why people are fearful of letting people from a war-torn nation into ours. The sad fact is that there are families who have nowhere to turn to in Syria. One way takes them to ISIS and the other to a dangerous government regime. Before you take to social media to bash a group of citizens based on religion and nationality take time to look at what they are escaping. These refugees don’t want to come to the U.S to take our benefits or destroy our country; they just want to live.
