{"id":8663,"date":"2015-09-16T14:24:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T13:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=8663"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:15:21","slug":"refugees-migrants-activists-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/refugees-migrants-activists-terrorists\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugees, Migrants, Activists, Terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joseph<\/a>
Joseph and Mary take Jesus down to Egypt to seek refuge from Herod’s persecution. (as depicted in 1650 by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1618-1682)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With more and more people crossing the\u00a0Mediterranean Sea and Turkey into the southern and eastern borders of Europe, what would be a Christian response from the United Kingdom to what can be described as an exodus of Biblical proportions, as one might say, from the Middle East?<\/p>\n

Much depends on whether such people are viewed as refugees, as economic migrants, as Muslim activists or – heaven forbid – as terrorists.<\/p>\n

The Holy Family famously went down to Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution. \u00a0They were refugees. \u00a0They sought refuge. \u00a0Almost two thousand years earlier, \u00a0Jacob and his\u00a0family were welcomed into Egypt at a time of famine. \u00a0They were refugees from hardship and also economic migrants who actually improved Egypt with their animal husbandry skills. A ‘mixed multitude’ came out of Egypt with Israel under Moses. \u00a0They were migrants. \u00a0They sought a better economic life.<\/p>\n

The Israelites, of course, were fleeing Egyptian persecution, but they would go on to conquer Canaan within fifty years by force of arms, which is perhaps a less comforting precedent.<\/p>\n

Even then, we struggle to find in the Bible those who appear to seek refuge or trading positions only to work to destabilise the host nation from within.<\/p>\n

That may be because, from ancient Egypt, through Israel to Rome, those who tried to introduce foreign belief systems, let alone those who mounted uprisings against established governments,\u00a0were not made welcome, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n

SYRIAN REFUGEES<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
Prime Minister David Cameron talking to Syrian refugees in a camp in Lebanon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So we should support the Prime Minister’s\u00a0decision to take genuine refugees from the camps on the Syrian border. That must mean he should extend the hand of welcome to Syrian and Iraqi Christian families, who, incidentally, most accurately fit his own description of those who are most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

We also recognise that having encouraged the uprising in Syria which has to date led to loss of life for 200,000 and the destruction of the homes and livelihoods of millions, the United Kingdom bears a great deal of responsibility for the current crisis. \u00a0So we have a moral duty to help those forced from their homes.<\/p>\n

Only Russia, China and Iran, by supporting the Syrian government, flawed as it undoubtedly is, have prevented even worse bloodshed and displacement and we thank God for their stand in the United Nations and in the region.<\/p>\n

As our government is now finding out, there is such as thing as ‘unintended consequences’.<\/p>\n

ECONOMIC MIGRANTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The language used to described the travellers is important and our media are well aware of this. \u00a0Call them Refugees and there will be sympathy. \u00a0Call them migrants and there is suspicion. \u00a0Call them\u00a0activists – or even ‘Muslims’ – and the hostility starts.<\/p>\n

Many of us in Christian circles will be sympathetic to the plight of refugees on the grounds of hospitality. \u00a0Those who\u00a0are pointing to the benefits of migrants are having a struggle in a nation like Britain which is seemingly already swamped by mainly Muslim immigrants, many entering illegally, over the last twenty years. \u00a0Floods of economic migrants from the EU’s newer members has not helped that perception.<\/p>\n

\"Refugees<\/a>
Refugees, or migrants, arriving in Munich.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nevertheless, it has been pointed out that ancient Rome encouraged economic migrants to settle there precisely because their economic activity and imported innovation\u00a0skills increased the general prosperity of the empire.<\/p>\n

Germany has announced a welcome to migrants for a similar reason. \u00a0Their population is ageing because Germans have in recent years had one of the lowest indigenous birth rates in the world, well below replacement level. \u00a0The question of who will fund the pensions of those about to retire now and for the next twenty years appears to have been answered.<\/p>\n

But across the eastern and northern fringes of the European Union area, and without even mentioning possible Islamic State sleeper terrorists, long-established Christian nations are voicing concerns.<\/p>\n

MUSLIM\u00a0INFLUX<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hungary's<\/a>
Hungary’s new chain-link fence is stronger than their temporary razor-wire effort which had little effect on their border with Serbia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hungarians are just finishing a fence topped with razor wire on their southern border with Serbia to keep out the flow of migrants.<\/p>\n

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban<\/a><\/b>\u00a0warned in September that the growing Muslim influx is threatening Europe’s “Christian roots”. Defending Hungary’s response to the migrant crisis, Mr Orban\u00a0said his country did not want to admit large numbers of Muslims.<\/p>\n

Slovakia will accept 200 asylum seekers under EU resettlement plans but insists all of them should be are Christians who have been persecuted in Syria.<\/p>\n

Slovakia’s interior ministry said it will turn away Muslims because they will struggle to fit in if they have nowhere to worship<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Spokesman Ivan Metik said: “We could take 800 Muslims but we don’t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?”<\/p>\n

That is not an argument the United Kingdom could make.<\/p>\n

WHOSE RULES?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Finland,\u00a0Prime Minister Juha Sipila said he was willing to give up one of his houses to migrants, but his coalition partners are the anti-immigration Finns Party, who came second in April’s election.<\/p>\n

Mr Sipila wrote on Twitter that he wanted “to develop Finland as an open, linguistically and culturally international country”.<\/p>\n

Finns Party chief Timo Soini, who is Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, wrote on his blog last week that Christian and Yazidi minorities could be given priority as refugees. But he came under heavy criticism from the media and changed course in an interview on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Olli<\/a>
Olli Immonen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But\u00a0Some of his party colleagues are made of sterner stuff<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Jussi Halla-aho, a Finns Party MEP, said some members of society were not integrating well enough, adding there was a risk “the society begins to play by the rules of the Muslim minority rather than expecting the minority to play by the rules of the society”.<\/p>\n

In July, Olli Immonen, one of the party’s MPs, wrote of what he called “this nightmare called multiculturalism” on his Facebook page, adding: “We will fight until the end for our homeland and one true Finnish nation.”<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Alexander Stubb responded in a tweet: “Multiculturalism is an asset. That’s all I have to say.”<\/p>\n

But is it an asset? In a survey in August, before the new talks on migrant quotas, most Finns, of whom 78% belong to the Lutheran Church, said in a survey they would rather live next to an alcohol rehabilitation centre than a mosque.<\/p>\n

MUSLIM ACTIVISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of our leaders make the mistake of seeing Islam as a religion. \u00a0It is, in fact, a political system.<\/p>\n

In July 2015, the Daily Mirror commissioned a survey from pollsters ICM to find out how much support Islamic State actually enjoyed among British Muslims<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0The results shocked even the Mirror.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The East London Mosque – the Daily Mirror claimed 50% of British Muslims support Islamic State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three percent of respondents in Britain were very favourable towards the Muslim terrorist group (which ICM\u00a0called ISIS) and 6% were somewhat favourable. Female and male respondents had similar attitudes.<\/p>\n

The pollsters did not ask people their religious affiliations, but when you consider that around 5% of the population is actually Muslim, rising to 10% of the under-25\u2019s, and assuming that non-Muslims will not be at all supportive of Islamic State, the Mirror\u2019s claim<\/a><\/strong> that \u2018around half of Britain\u2019s three million Muslims could be ISIS sympathisers\u2019 may be an understatement.<\/p>\n

Logically, the more Muslims come here, the more of our population will be Muslim activists, sympathetic to Islamic State or whichever hard-line aggressive Muslim terrorist group takes its place. \u00a0The same will be true in Germany, France, Italy or wherever Muslims end up.<\/p>\n

TERRORISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which leads to the last and least welcome category of those travelling across the Med and the Turkish peninsular, Muslim sleeper terrorists.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
How many of the young men trying to enter Britain through Calais, or trudging through Europe, are genuine refugees, and how many are Islamic State sleepers? No-one knows, but IS claim ‘thousands’ across Europe as a whole.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Islamic State militants are claiming to have smuggled ‘thousands’ of activists into Europe<\/a><\/strong> disguised as refugees from the Syrian conflict. \u00a0It is certain that many will already have crossed illegally into the United Kingdom.\u00a0A\u00a0country like Germany, announcing a welcome to hundreds of thousands, will end up harbouring thousands of sleeping terrorists.<\/p>\n

They will do nothing to frighten the horses and inadvertently stem the flow of migrants\u00a0in the immediate future. \u00a0But there will come a day when the people of Hungary and Slovakia may be grateful for the stand their leaders took. Even in those places, acts of terrorism could take place, but it is easier for domestic security forces to keep an eye on thousands of Muslims than millions.<\/p>\n

Even without actual IS terrorists, ordinary rank-and-file Muslims\u00a0are inspired and emboldened by the idea of an Islamic caliphate and supportive of attempts to establish one. \u00a0It makes them feel good about being Muslim and bolsters ambitions that one day, maybe one day soon, their host country could embrace Islam.<\/p>\n

JUST TAKE THE CHRISTIANS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Britain has done right to go to the refugee camps rather than encourage the people smugglers.<\/p>\n

But our\u00a0conclusion must be that Britain should take only Syrian and Iraqi Christian refugee families.<\/p>\n

In such an event, we can have no doubt that British churches and individual Christians will go out of our way to house them and help them become established and prosperous in our land.<\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n

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