Persuasive Essay On Syrian Refugees

Syrians are Human Beings: Why America should and will accept Syrian Refugees

In september 2015 the world woke up to the crisis in Syria. The cyber community played a major role in this turning point, as images of a deceased five year old boy were plastered all over the internet. The startling image of the boy later identified as, Aylan Kurdi coerced the masses to question how this could happen and what could've been done to avoid it (Micallef, 2015). However while this image and others like it have sparked outrage, the reality is that the Syrian people have been deeply intertwined in a brutal civil war. In its four year reign lies millions of innocent humans trapped in politics, religion and violence.

Since the rising of the Arab Springs

However deeper than its symbolism lies the fact that America is the land of immigrants and opportunity. Since its inception America has welcomed people fleeing famine, violence and in search of their vision of happiness. Inscribed on the base of the Statue reads the famous quote “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” (Lazarus, 1883) . This open call to those who can identify with the poems sentiment declares America as a safe space, a haven for the hopeful. So why now should we back out on our promise now?
Front running democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been vocal in this debate and she too supports their entry. At a rally in October she stated:
“But we cannot allow terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our values and our humanitarian obligations. Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee, that is just not who we are. We are better than that,” ( Steiger

This is of course easier said than done but how can we blame the Syrians for wanting to come here when they are running from the same enemy that we are. ISIS is the driving force of this high scale crisis , and the same level of anxiety that Americans feel from hundreds of miles away, are what the Syrians are facing head on. The issue seems to be that most people cannot separate religion from extremism. For instance the primary western fear of allowing Syrians into the country has been the belief that ISIS terrorist will sneak in under the guise of a refugee. While this is a reasonable viewpoint, it must be balanced with fact. And according to the Department of State over 785,000 refugees have been accepted into the U.S since September 11th and only 12 of those refugees have been arrested or detained for suspicion of terrorism (Bellware,2015). This means that there is a thousandth percent of 1 that a Syrian refugee will actualize pose a threat. It is the illusion of a mass invasion of terrorist that scares the American people, and that rhetoric is directly spread through our news outlets which often times have ulterior motives. When we strip what we hear on the media the facts all point to low chance of a colossal