Comparative Responses
Syria is bleeding its people, they are flooding out of the country of their birth, their national homeland, at a rate impossible for their neighbours and international humanitarian aid groups including the United Nations, to adequately cope with. Syria is a majority-Sunni country, so it is the Sunnis who are fleeing the bloody reign of Shiite Alawite ruler Bashar al-Assad.It is, perhaps, a matter of time until he is unseated from power.
And if and when that happens the rebels, including the terrorist jihadis who have reverse-flooded into Syria from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere and funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, will have the opportunity they clamour for, and which they are preparing the populace for; an Islamist, Sharia-run government, transforming the nation into another version of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that over two million people have sought haven in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon. Egypt and Iraq, straining those countries' financial resources, and their social-political balance. Turkey seems the least troubled by the presence of the refugees, but Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq are failing, even with international assistance, to provide minimum sanitation facilities, food supplies and medical care to the refugees.
The Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all fabulously wealthy, have the means to alleviate the financial strains on those countries, all of which with the exception of Iraq share Sunni majorities. They are expending their attention and financing, however, not on the urgent needs of the refugees straining the capabilities of their neighbours, but on financing weapons acquisitions for the rebels.
Saudi Arabia, for one, has no wish to welcome additional 'foreign elements' to its borders and its workforce. Whereas in stark contrast, countries not of the Middle East, are responding to their universal conscience and offering refuge to desperate refugees. The numbers are not huge, but they tell a story quite different than that seen in the Middle East.
The European Union passed a resolution to urge its member states "to live up to their humanitarian responsibilities and to increase their assistance to Syrian refugees". Those that have responded opened their doors to Syrian refugees, among them Sweden accepting over 15,000 refugees. Germany is prepared to accept 5,000 with two-year residency permits with extensions possible.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Australia, Norway and even finance-strained Spain have all pledged in their turn to make accommodations for a limited number of Syrian displaced. The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have also made solemn promises that they are prepared to do their share in accepting Syrian refugees.
Former citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney has affirmed Canada has committed itself to the resettlement of up to 1,300 Syrian refugees who will mostly be taken care of by private sponsors. The United States has agreed to admit 2,000 refugees over the 90 women and children accepted the last two years.
It is as though the wealthy oil sheikdoms and kingdoms of the Middle East are completely divorced of any sense of humanitarian responsibility for the well-being and assistance toward their fellow Muslims, depending on the soft hearts of non-Muslim countries to take up the slack.
A situation that speaks volumes about their own humanity.
And which speaks, at the same time, critically of the religion that imposes upon its adherents a fundamental response toward other Muslims to meet their needs under Islamic precepts of personal and religious responsibilities.
Labels: Crisis Politics, European Union, Islam, Middle East, North America, Refugees, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 01, 2013
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