Recently the new Canadian Liberal government had announced the plan of resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees. On Saturday, the Prime Minister’s office vowed that despite the attacks on Friday night in Paris, the government still has full intentions in keeping its promise of resettling Syrian refugees. In addition, the Prime Minister’s office reassured Canadians that the refugees coming into Canada will be selected in a safe and responsible method to deal with any potential security threats.
Friday nights attack on Paris has everyone on edge, and this has created a backlash against many of the soon to be Syrian refugees coming into Canada. Many of the concerns regarding the Syrian refugees that have been ‘heightened’ surround issues of security and financials. However, we as a community and citizens of Canada must not fall into the trap of fear mongering nor give into these terrorists. This is our country and we should not dictate our beliefs and morality on the grounds of fear.
In the wise words of Nelson Mandela “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
We must remind of ourselves, what happened in Paris is an everyday situation for these Syrian refugees and many others around the world. Just last week alone, ISIS attacked many parts around the world, including Paris. In Lebanon, Beirut 43 Shia Muslims were killed in an ISIS attack. On Wednesday, a nine year old Persian-speaking Shia girl was beheaded by ISIS militants in Kabul, Afghanistan.
There are many people around the world who have the same fears as the West had on Friday night. The Syrian refugees are trying to survive, and if we close our borders to them we lose humanity, and we lose to ISIS. More specifically, accepting Syrian refugees does not mean increased expectancy of potential terrorists attacks. If we compare France and Germany’s Syrian refugee policies, we will see there is no correlation to Syrian refugees with in-country terrorism. France has a fairly closed door policy to Syrian refugees, with an acceptance of approximately 500 Syrian refugees. On the other hand, Germany has had a very open door policy, with an intake of approximately 200,000 Syrian refugees and has had no attacks. Accepting these refugees is not the issue. This is a political power play by all those in the game, and Canada is not in that game.
I understand that it is difficult to not be in fear, as I had three friends who were in Paris on Friday (all of whom are fine), the Paris attacks were a reminder of 9-11 and hit a little too close to home for many Westerners. I’m currently living in London U.K. and since Friday there has been heightened security. I noticed as I was walking around the busy Waterloo tube station lots of MI5 and police presence, which definitely added to my fear. One cannot help be suspicious of everyone around them, and feel at unease. In fact I was even debating if I wanted to take the tube at all. But then I realized I would be giving into ISIS and there is no way I was willing to live in fear. So I put on my trainers and hustled to the station. Since Friday I also have had a few conversations with different people, regarding the Paris attacks, including a gentleman from Syria (my uber taxi driver) last night. I hesitantly brought up Paris, and he said he was glad I brought it up. As a British citizen from Syria, he said every ounce of him despised ISIS and wished he could do something to “wipe them out.” In addition, he stated that the despicable behavior of ISIS was affecting his life in the U.K. He had come to the U.K. when he was 13 years old, he was an engineer by trade and that being a Muslim presently was not easy. He was afraid that after the attacks in Paris many Muslims will now be ostracized even more so than before. Our conversation carried on to the lack of integration of some minorities in the U.K. Which he argued stemmed partially from the lack of “acceptance.” He gave the Syrian refugees as an example and asked “what can we do?” and “Where should we go?” By the end of the forty minute taxi ride, I thanked him for the conversation and the drive home. As I stepped out of the taxi I turned to him and said “All you can do is keeping talking, don’t seclude yourself. Let the people know that you too are scared. They will come around.”
My point is ISIS makes up an extremely small fraction of the Islamic population; we need to not paint all followers of Islam with the same brush. We need to believe in humanity, and above all else we need to unify as one global community. We need to set aside religious beliefs, and come together as humans of one race. ISIS is not an Islamic religious organization as they claim, they are political terrorist and they do not have the right to dictate our morality.
Sunny Mangat
Twitter @mangat_sunny
Sunny Mangat 