The mostly Islamic refugees fleeing oppressive regimes like Syria and Iraq are increasing, not decreasing, and it is starting to bring out strong opposition in the European countries they are fleeing to. Considering how progressive European countries are, the situation must be really bad for these countries to start building fences like Americans do to keep illegal immigrants out.
Obama’s bumbling foreign policy in Iraq and Libya helped lead to this situation, creating power vacuums that allowed ISIS to make inroads there and then over to Syria. People began fleeing those countries last year and traveling to the European Union for asylum.
France and Germany have taken in about as many refugees as the U.S. Sweden and the UK have allowed in about half that number, and France about one-third. Over four million of the refugees are from Syria, about half of all the refugees, and about a million and a half are from Iraq. Turkey says it is at full capacity with three million refugees, mainly from Syria. Turkey is helping about 30,000 more on the Syrian side, but has not opened its border for them. Lebanon has taken in 1.2 million.
The European Union's open-border Schengen agreement allows people to move freely within the EU, but countries are now making exceptions. Austria and Denmark have tightened up border checks, and Austria has built a fence along its border with Slovenia. Hungary built a fence on its border with Serbia, and in September began arresting refugees for criminal trespassing. Croatia has said it cannot take any more refugees and closed its border with Serbia last fall.
Finland blocked two of its border crossings with Russia to keep out any more refugees, and set up repatriation centers to house those who were not granted asylum. Denmark is considering a law that would let the government seize valuables from the refugees. Sweden has instituted border checks, unable to accommodate any more refugees. A homeless refugee camp in Calais, France, that has existed in various forms since 1999 has swollen in numbers to 3,000, despite the government’s attempts to shut it down over the years.
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Several European leaders have said if they cannot control the massive migration, it will mean the end of Europe. Glenn Beck visited Europe recently and said it’s too late.
“This is not unique,” he told Megyn Kelly in an interview. “What's happening with Donald Trump is not unique. It is happening all over the West. The people of Sweden know, we are headed towards fascism. Because the government is not listening to the people. They are not doing things that are full of common sense. All of our vetting right now for these refugees that are being jammed down everybody's throat in the west, and I believe is a Trojan horse, is being jammed down the throats by the EU, the United States, and the U.N.”
Demonstrators across Europe are showing up in thousands to protest the refugees. On Saturday, as many as 8,000 rallied in Dresden, Germany, as part of the anti-refugee movement PEGIDA. The German acronym stands for “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.” Up to an additional 3,500 counter protesters were also present.
Along with the refugees comes violence. In the Czech capital of Prague, a refugee center was recently set on fire with Molotov cocktails. On New Year’s Eve, there was an outbreak of attacks against women by refugees in Cologne. At least 120 women were robbed or sexually molested by around 1,000 young men. The city police chief Wolfgang Albers called it “a completely new dimension of crime,” and Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said it was “monstrous.” The BBC reports that the men appeared to have specifically arrived at the area around Cologne Cathedral with the intention of attacking women. Similar attacks were reported in Stuttgart and Hamburg. Breitbart published the full list of 1,049 crimes that took place in Cologne that night.
The leader of Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been reluctant to close the country’s borders to the refugees, no doubt due to concerns about looking xenophobic considering Germany’s Holocaust history. Germany took in 1.1 million refugees last year. Merkel has since backed down slightly, promising to expel the criminals and reduce the number of refugees allowed into the county. Who would have guessed the leader of Germany would sound like a conservative Republican on immigration? Under Obama, illegal immigrant felons are frequently released right back into the population, or out on bail instead of being deported, where they often commit more crimes.
A teenage girl in Germany posted a video to Facebook expressing how afraid she and her friends have become about going out in public due to the refugees. She said they get viciously criticized by the Islamic refugees simply for wearing T-shirts. She asks, “Why should we, children, have to grow up in such fear?” She says the police won’t do anything, which is likely due to their fear of being labeled a racist.
Many of the protesters now carry signs that say “Keep rapefugees out,” a reference to the large numbers of rapes taking place. According to The Spectator, rapes by foreigners have been increasing in Sweden. However, Sweden has become so politically correct, The Spectator reveals, that police officers don’t dare release the ethnicity or nationality of suspects or risk being accused of being racist. The Swedish Democrats, which have become the main political party in Sweden opposing the refugees, are now the third-largest political party in Sweden.
The U.S. is likely headed in the same direction as Obama has welcomed the refugees here, and called for at least 10,000 more Syrian refugees over the next year. Texas has taken in more refugees than any state over the past three years, at least 7,200 over the last year or so, and last fall Republican Governor Greg Abbott finally told Obama the state would not accept anymore. However, about half of the states that have said they will not accept refugees actually have. Texas is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the federal government over it.
The protests have begun here. A week ago, protesters gathered on the courthouse steps in Missoula, Mont., to express their opposition to creating an International Rescue Committee field office in the community. On Saturday, a group calling itself America First rallied at the Berks County Courthouse in Reading, Pa., to protest the Syrian refugees. They were confronted by two groups of counter protesters; one wearing black masks and a Latino group.
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Europe should reject the refugees. "This means turning boats around, for people coming by sea," he said in a speech last November. "It means denying entry at the border, for people with no legal right to come. And it means establishing camps for people who have nowhere to go." He said the decision "will gnaw at our consciences — yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever.” UKIP leader Nigel Farage praised his remarks as “heroic.”
It boils down to this: Society has become so politically correct that even though many of the refugees are radical Islamists, Western governments insist on bending over backward to accommodate them, to the detriment of their own citizens. Radical Islamists interpret the Koran to permit the sexual abuse of women. They insist that society conform its laws to their strict Sharia laws. This sets them up for conflict with the free world — especially when there are millions of them.
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a moderate Muslim and the son of Syrian immigrants, said the problem is not vetting the refugees. A resident of Arizona, he backs Governor Doug Ducey’s call to stop refugees from being settled there if they’re not going to be vetted. If the U.S. does not carefully vet the refugees — no easy task because many of them disguise who they are, including saying they are Christians — we can expect to go the way of Europe. Maybe then the border fence will finally be built, but it will be too late.
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