Why is the United States taking in mostly Muslim Syrian refugees whose numbers eclipse that of the very few Christians who managed to join the stream of people fleeing their war-torn country?
The question was raised during a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing last week, which showed U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) expressing his frustration over the awfully low numbers of Christian refugees from Syria allowed to resettle in America, Charisma News reports.
The latest data released by the U.S. State Department's Refugee Processing Center, as first reported by CNS News, shows that 1,069 Syrian refugees were admitted in the U.S. from April to May this year. However, only two of them were Christians, comprising just 0.19 percent of the total.
To show the disparity, Charisma News points out that at the start of the civil war in Syria, about 87 percent of the population was Muslim and about 10 percent was Christian.
So far this year, about 2,100 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the U.S.—with only six of them Christians. That's 0.29 percent, according to watchdogs taking note of the refugee influx.
These sources further noted that since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, less than 60 Syrian Christians have found their way to America as refugees.
During the congressional hearing, Smith cited a news report showing that of the 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in May this year, not one was listed as being Christian.
"They (Christians in Iraq and Syria) can't even get into a [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] or [Internally Displaced Persons] camp or a refugee camp" since they are "unwanted, they're at risk," Smith said.
"For me that has got to change. I mean that is unconscionable, it's not like we haven't been raising this for, in my case three years, in the cases of so many others, three years. And we've had hearing after hearing. We've got the designation. Why aren't Christians being focused upon?" he asked.
Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson answered the question. He said many of those who face persecution and genocide has to avoid official refugee camps because they are targeted for violence there by Islamists.
