I wanted to share a story that happened on one of my recent shifts volunteering at a refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. I ask that you read this as a human being — not as a Democrat or Republican or whatever. For the good of humanity just process the words without any filter.
There has been a lot of rhetoric from American politicians about how dangerous Muslims are to America. Statements like “I would stop all Muslims from entering the United States” to “They want to kill us” to “Islam promotes violence” to “I would carpet bomb them all” are part of the everyday political rhetoric.
If Muslims were really that dangerous, the last place any American woman would want to find herself is alone with another female in a relatively isolated area with a group of Muslim men in their early twenties. Right? The political rhetoric would tell a narrative that implied that woman would be at risk of being beheaded at any moment.
Here’s what I experienced. Every morning at the camp, the refugees are asked to vacate the huts they slept in so the cleaners can clean each one. There is one hut in particular that is relatively isolated. It’s the last in a five hut row and sits on top of a small hill. It takes careful footing to even make it to the hut since there is little ground between the wall of the hut and where the steep slope down begins. A fellow female volunteer and I carefully navigated our way to this particular hut. We knocked on the door, let the people inside know we needed them to vacate the hut for cleaning and then we opened the door. In it we found about eight Syrian Muslim men in their early twenties. I can’t imagine there is a more feared demographic on earth than these men. The young men were still sleeping just like my two American sons in their early twenties would be at 8:00 am on a day when they didn’t need to be at work. I repeated the line “Hello, we need you to leave the hut, so it can be cleaned.” Slowly the men rose and one of the men who spoke English apologized and said they just needed a few minutes to gather their belongings and they would be out. At that moment, if they wanted to, these Syrian Muslim men could have pulled me and the other female volunteer into the hut and nobody would have known. They didn’t. Why? Because they are peaceful people fleeing the same terrorism that American politicians fear.
The young Muslim men respectfully and efficiently gathered their belongings and vacated the hut. Protocol calls for volunteers to then use a zip-tie to lock the doors until the cleaners can get in there to clean. My fellow female volunteer was struggling with the zip-tie and was unable to get it to lock. The young Muslim man who spoke English gently asked if he could help. The other volunteer handed him the zip-tie and the young man was able to secure the door.
The men needed to know where to go to inquire about housing for that night so they followed us back to the hut that makes the daily housing assignments. Along the way I told the young man who communicated with us that I was impressed by his English. He lit up with pride and smiled wide. He then told me that he has just finished studying at the university and hoped to be a teacher. He was about as dangerous to me as a Buddhist monk.
Part of the political rhetoric is that “Packs of Muslim men are traveling together with cell phones posing as refugees.” The reason single Muslim men in their twenties are leaving Syria is because they are the people ISIL is trying to recruit. And of course they are going to travel with friends. If my American sons in their early twenties were being recruited by ISIS and needed to leave the country, of course they would travel with their friends. And of course they would bring their cell phones. Who in their right mind would go on a journey that was hundreds and in some cases 1,000+ miles long without bringing their cell phone. In addition to being their only source of communication, they use the GPS to navigate their journey.
The fear these American politicians are flaming is simply irrational. It would be like not helping the people fleeing the Twin Towers when they were collapsing because there may be a chance that one of the people fleeing could be a terrorist.
America has let 1.5 million Middle Eastern refugees into America since 911 and not one has committed an act of terrorism. Americans are more likely to be shot by a white Christian male than a refugee. And just like a white Christian male shooter doesn’t represent true Christians, Muslim terrorists do not represent true Mulsims.
As human beings, we need to help each other and the refugees desperately need our help. Remember, Jesus was a Middle Eastern refugee and even though I’m agnostic, I know in his heart he would want us to lead with love and compassion when it comes to the refugees.
Please pray for the refugees. #BeKind
