| Update: Good news! It turns out that among the Muslims, the social service agency is settling the Shia mostly in the Springfield area, and the Sunni mostly in my area (I'm Sunni, but it wouldn't really matter to me either way.). I go in on Friday to meet with the coordinator and some of the case managers. They said that they also need help with transportation, which I am happy to provide.
The coordinator told me to ignore the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim comments on the story. She also said that they were receiving some "crackpot" calls at the office against Muslims.
Original: Salaam writes: Imagine my excitement when I saw this newspaper article in the Telegram and Gazette (excerpted below) reporting that a large group of Iraqi refugees was coming to a city near me. It would be an opportunity to help some of those millions of formerly middle-class Iraqi Muslims who have had their lives torn up by the unjust war.
Imagine my anger then when I read the article and found that the great majority of those coming were Christians, who make up less than three percent of the Iraqi population. It's not that I don't want to help Christians, it's just that the US government is so clearly discriminating against Muslims. Very arbitrary and unjust.
I've placed a call to Lutheran Social Services of New England. When I find out more about helping Muslim refugees I will post it here.
A growing community of Iraqi refugees has quietly been taking root in the city, and the local charity responsible for resettling them here is bracing for another wave this week.
More than 30 Iraqi refugees were expected to arrive in the city last week and this week, adding to a local community of about 100 immigrants from the war-ravaged nation, many from an oppressed Christian minority that fled to Syria and Jordan, said Jozefina Lantz of Lutheran Social Services of New England.
"We are expecting to see close to 200 in the coming year," Ms. Lantz said.
The agency also has been helping to resettle refugees from Bhutan, a south Asian nation bordering India and China at the foot of the Himalayas.
Lutheran Social Services is one of 10 private, nonprofit charities across the country contracted by the U.S. State Department to get arriving refugees set up in this country.
The local office of Lutheran Social Services issued an urgent appeal last week seeking help from landlords in the city, who typically require the first and last month's rent up front, as well as a security deposit equal to a month's rent. That can add up to $1,800 or more.
....
Although some of the Iraqi arrivals here are Shia and Sunni Muslims, many also are part of an ancient Christian sect in Iraq.
"They are one of the oldest Christian religions. They have been absolutely decimated in Iraq and are still under threat by the majority Muslim populations in Syria and Jordan and some other places," Ms. Lantz said. "We have established quite a nice little community here that is growing."
....
Part of the reason Lutheran Social Services is scrambling to find homes for the tide of arriving refugees now is because some sort of backlog has suddenly worked its way through the U.S. State Department refugee system. The agency saw few new arrivals through last fall, the spring and most of the summer, and then the volume picked up suddenly this month, Ms. Lantz said.
Story here. |
