It’s taken me a while to put my thoughts on paper again regarding the Syrian refugee crisis because at first I thought it was just the Republican candidates who were using the fear card to exploit the Paris bombing to their advantage in the polls. I thought who can take Donald Trump and Ben Carson seriously? They may be the two leading contenders for the Republican nomination but really. I mean Donald Trump wants to close mosques? Has he ever read the Constitution and in particular the First Amendment guaranteeing, among other basic freedoms, the freedom of religion? Maybe one of his aides could explain it to him, if he would actually listen to anyone else. And Ben Carson? He wants to close our borders to all Muslims. But how can anyone take a man seriously who believes the earth is only 6000 years old and the pyramids were built to store grain? And this is a man who claims Jesus Christ as his inspiration. Maybe he should revisit Christ’s life to see how he felt about denying help to the poor and the needy. Take a lesson from him, Ben.

But then there are those 27 governors and those Democrats in Congress siding with the Republicans to freeze any plans to allow Syrian refugees into the country. So it has gone beyond the Republican contenders to spread to the cities and states across the nation.

And what is all this about? FEAR. They think there might be a terrorist or two who can slip in with those refugees to do damage to the nation. Are you kidding me? There are already enough lunatics in the US who can do damage to the nation. There is on average at least a shooting every week where innocent people are killed by some madman with a gun. More people are killed by US citizens with guns than have died in Paris, on the Russian airliner, and in the bombing in Turkey these last few months. Get real, America! You already have fanatics in the country causing harm to your own citizens. Where is the outrage, the demand to ban gun sales and cripple the power of the NRA from Trump, Carson, and the rest? Why don’t those governors do something about all those guns in their states? Or is the Second Amendment more important, more precious, than the First Amendment in their eyes? Perhaps if Muslims started contributing to campaign funds like other special interest groups there would be less outcry against them.

After 9/11 there was a movement to ban foreign students, especially ones from Muslim countries, from coming into the country because those terrorists that flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and were on Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania came into the country on student visas. Well the procedures changed for issuing F-1 and J-1 visas and that doesn’t seem to be a threat anymore. Likewise, the vetting system proposed by the White House will ensure strict background checks on potential refugees. It could take up to two years of checks for anyone to be allowed in. That doesn’t seem unreasonable as far as guaranteeing any national security concerns. Have those people who want to bar refugees from Syria coming into the country actually read the vetting system already in place for people claiming refugee status in the US? It will be even harder for people from Syria. Certainly that should reduce fear.

And don’t you people realize how many foreign nationals are recruited by Daesh? People with valid passports from EU countries and the US. They are a far greater threat to national security than the Syrian refugees in question since many can come into the country without a visa or the very least a tourist visa without any problem.

But no, fear has taken hold of the American people and xenophobia toward Muslims has again taken center stage. And once again, I am ashamed to be an American, especially since I live in a Muslim country that has taken in over two million refugees, some of whom are Christian Syrians, I might add. And Jews were never turned away, either. They don’t question their religious beliefs at the border when they allow them in here. Regardless of my uneasiness about some of the things that happen here politically, Islam seems more generous when it comes to offering aid to the helpless, the poor, the suffering which is, of course, stressed in the Qur’an.

And yes, Turkey and Jordan, have taken in over four million refugees between them, and some countries like Germany in the EU are opening their borders to help ease the flow of those fleeing war, but not the US, that beacon of liberty and freedom from oppression. No, just for Christians, it seems, if anyone, and only a few Republicans are suggesting that, like, ironically, Jeb Bush whose brother when he was president did more to upset the stability of the region than anyone else in modern times.

For shame, America. For shame. Does the Statue of Liberty now wear a blindfold and hold an extinguished lamp into the air?