US should welcome refugees
Members of Midcoast Friends Meeting (Quakers) urge Americans to welcome Syrian refugees into our country, communities and homes. While European countries have absorbed nearly a million refugees, the U.S. should respond with the same care and commitment to receive more than a token flow of Syrian refugees.
Two months ago, Americans were shocked by the photo of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy on a beach in Turkey. Today, compassion has given way to sweeping fears that terrorists will be embedded among refugees coming to the U.S.
Remember that nearly all the killers in the Paris attacks were French and Belgian citizens. Their terrorism was born in depressed and disaffected urban communities in Paris and Brussels and fueled by ethnic and sectarian inequities.
We know fear will lead to serious moral and political failures and dangerous misunderstandings. We fail to remember that U.S. military interventions have devastated so many lives and communities in Iraq and Afghanistan, enhancing the rise of virulent anti-American jihadi groups such as the Islamic State. The more we treat Syrian refugees as security threats, the more we reinforce jihadi assertions of the West’s indifference to Muslim suffering. Fear-based attitudes also alienate American Muslims.
Current anti-refugee and anti-Muslim attitudes underlie the congressional attempt to block the entry of Syrian refugees as well as Gov, Paul LePage’s pledge to do everything in his power to prevent relocation of Syrian refugees to Maine.
We urge our governor, legislators and fellow Mainers to look beyond fear and support a full humanitarian response to Syrian refugees.
James Matlack
Midcoast Friends Meeting
Damariscotta
Brewster Grace
Midcoast Outreach and Peace Center
Rockport
NRA is not the problem
Alex Steed has gone after the left’s boogeyman: the NRA. Yet the NRA’s membership has increased significantly in recent years because of the drumbeat from the left about the need to further restrict gun ownership. The NRA’s power comes from the millions of dues-paying citizens who support its mission.
Steed is wrong that the NRA has “lost the narrative.” It is gaining ground. The majority of U.S. citizens do not desire to rely solely on the police to protect themselves and their children. Many realize the police cannot be everywhere and are arming themselves.
The tragedy in San Bernardino, California, would not have been prevented by the “common sense” gun laws, for which Steed and many on the left cry. California already has most of those laws in place. The weapons used in this attack were acquired illegally. The pipe bombs the shooters had also were illegal.
The horrific scene in San Bernardino was committed by radical Islamists. Other shootings in recent times were committed by nutcases. The bulk of the murders in the nation are not the ones that receive the national headlines. These largely urban murders being committed by thugs, often repeat offenders — felons — using illegally obtained weapons. The root cause of this evil is the topic of another debate, but it has nothing to do with the NRA.
Is there a mass shooting in my or my children’s future? I don’t know. But if there is, I pray someone besides the bad guys is armed.
Ted Freeman
Deer Isle
Muslims must fight extremists
Donald Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims discounts the contributions they make to the U.S. When I helped at a Christian food pantry, two Muslim ladies also came to serve.
Other faiths also have suffered because of undesirable people claiming to represent those faiths. What must happen is American Muslims must take a more active role in defending their homeland from jihadists who infiltrate their faith here and report any jihadist actions within their mosques or call to prayer. They should note that Syrian Muslims were not spared by the murdering jihadists and step up to defend America.
We must not let a faith-based civil war happen in this country, in which the terrorists would win. We must stand united and respect each other’s faith, because that is who we are.
Marim Rooney
Hermon