Out of the 483 Syrian refugees approved for resettlement in the United States since the Paris terror attacks last November, only one of them is a Christian, federal U.S. government data showed.
The lone Christian belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, the State Department Refugee Processing Center said in a report, according to CNS News.
Of the 483 Syrian refugees who have already been admitted into the U.S., one-quarter, or 125, are able-bodied men between the ages of 14 and 50, the report said.
The vast majority of the admitted refugees—470 (97.3 percent)—are Sunnis. Significantly, the Sunni branch of Islam is the same faith adhered to and defended by the Islamic State (ISIS). This involuntarily raises the question: Why are Sunni Muslims fleeing from ISIS which is their own kind?
Three (0.6 percent) of the refugees are Shi'ites while nine (1.8 percent) are individuals identified only as "Moslem."
The U.S. State Department says religious affiliation categories are those cited by the refugees themselves. In addition to mainstream Sunnis and Shia, Syria is home to Muslims from the Alawite and Ismaili sects. President Bashar al-Assad is Alawite.
Christians account for an estimated 10 percent of the Syrian population. ISIS has been singling out Christians and other non-Muslim minorities in its brutal campaign in both Syria and Iraq.
Of the refugees admitted to the U.S., 106 (21.9 percent) are women aged 14-50, and 228 are children aged under 14 consisting of 118 boys and 110 girls, according to the State Department record.
At least two of the terrorists involved in the deadly Paris attacks had posed as Syrian refugees to be able to gain entry to Europe, according to investigators.
The attack prompted a number of Republican governors, along with several of the GOP presidential candidates, to call on President Barack Obama to reconsider his administration's plan to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the current fiscal year, warning that some of the refugees could be potential national security risks.
Fear of a major terrorist attack in the U.S. heightened following the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California by an ISIS-inspired couple. Last week, two Iraqi-born refugees in the U.S. appeared in federal court on terror-related charges.
The U.S. Senate is now considering to adopt legislation that passed in the House of Representatives with a veto-proof majority last November, requiring additional screening for refugee applicants from Syria and Iraq.
Since FY 2016 began on Oct. 1, 2015, the U.S. government as of Jan. 18, 2016 has admitted 774 of the planned 10,000 Syrian refugees. Of the 774, just six (0.7 percent) are Christians, comprising three Catholics, one Greek Orthodox, one Orthodox and one person identified simply as "Christian."
Of the rest, 756 (97.6 percent) are Sunnis, three (0.3 percent) are Shia, and nine (1.1 percent) are "Moslem," according to the Refugee Processing Center.
