How the isis terror group and syrian refugee crisis started

If you live somewhere in the world right now, chances are you know about the infamous terrorist organization, ISIS, and the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Unfortunately, chances also are that you do not know the whole story, so let’s start from the beginning.

ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as the ISIL or Gaesh) is the offspring of the organization everybody knows as Al-Qaeda. After the attacks on September 11th, the U. S. Government found themselves no longer able to ignore terrorism and decided to invade and occupy Iraq in an attempt to remove Al-Qaeda and make the Iraqi government stable enough to protect themselves. However, when the U. S. deemed their task to be completed and withdrew from Iraq, the Iraqi military all but surrendered to imposing terrorist activity. Without a centralized power in Iraq, the country was quickly swallowed by the new and developing ISIS who now had the American ammunition and weaponry to become a worldwide menace. At this point, the world treated ISIS as not an immediate threat and virtually irrelevant. President Obama even referred to the organization as a “ JV team”, belittling their power and disregarding any imminent danger. This was the world’s perception of ISIS up until they suddenly became very real. On November 13th, ISIS organized and executed a series of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris that took a toll of 130 innocent lives. It took 130 lives to finally put the threat of ISIS in mainstream media and create public concern. The horrible reality is that this was not the first and will definitely not be the last large scale terrorist attack from ISIS.

Thankfully, these tragic attacks have brought light to a very pertinent issue which is the Syrian refugees. The Syrians have been fleeing their war-torn country for years, but in the last 12 months the problem has become very real. The refugee population has surpassed 2 million, making a 1. 8 million increase since last year. Suddenly, the rest of the world, not just Lebanon and Jordan, must help. However, it seems that the world is not as willing to help as it should be, especially the United States. Since the Paris Attacks, 30 out of 50 U. S. governors have refused to let any more Syrians into their states. Despite being illegal, this complete lack of hospitality is non-humanitarian and does not reflect the American values that we have claimed to have for so long. The truth is that Republican figureheads such as Donald Trump and Chris Christie have fostered a dangerous presence of mob mentality and war hysteria that is all too familiar. The U. S. turned their backs on Holocaust refugees in World War II, for example. Our neglect became vital to the death of thousands and thousands of innocent people. In hindsight, the U. S. said “ never again”… Well we are doing it again.

War hysteria is an unpredictable and irrational thing. In times of crisis, people lose sight of what is right. Beyond denying refugees, Republican governors and leaders, ringlead by Donald Trump, are calling for an identification and surveillance of all Muslim Americans and their places of worship. America has done this before as well. In World War II, the U. S. went to the extent of gathering and supervising thousands of Japanese Americans under poor conditions. This violation of civil rights left thousands of innocent citizens displaced and poor. This is what war hysteria does. Trump’s proposal to force all Muslim Americans to carry identification is way too resemblant of Nazi Germany imposing identification laws on their Jewish population. These types of laws are not only degrading, but they promote the social polarization that is historically vital to all large-scale oppression and genocide. Rather than accepting and aiding refugees, we are simply transporting them from one oppression to another.

Unfortunately, many Americans and politicians have lost sight of the real issue, that millions of men, women and children are without safety and will die if not immediately tended to. As Americans and students we must raise awareness for this issue and promote a national effort to solve it so that we will not have to grieve another global tragedy, and proclaim “ never again.”