According to a recent story, US immigration officials just turned away two Orthodox Christian families from Syria at Philadelphia International Airport.
Two Christian families have been denied entry to the United States and sent home.
They were among the first casualties of President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Two brothers, their wives and two children from Syria were turned away from Philadelphia International Airport in the United States and sent back, according to a source in Beirut.
Trump signed the controversial executive order on Friday banning people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States. All refugees are also banned for 120 days and refugees from Syria are banned indefinitely.
Trump said the ban was “not about religion”. He said in a statement: “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order. We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days.”
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Besides prohibiting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, the ban prohibits entry to all refugees, regardless of origin, for 120 days and indefinitely for refugees from Syria, which has been ravaged by a deadly war since 2011. After the 120 day period is over, priority will be given to Christian refugees, Trump told the Christian Broadcast Network.
Of more than 3,000 people who entered the US yesterday, more than 100 were detained for questioning.
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The ban only affects people travelling directly from those seven countries to the US.
However, the two Christian families from Syria were returned to the Middle East from Philadelphia in spite of reassurances from Trump that the executive order would give priority to admitting Christian refugees.
A source told AFP. “Six people, including Syrian Christians, were turned back at Philadelphia airport on Saturday and were back in Beirut on Sunday.”
Just hours before they were sent back, Trump had told the Christian Broadcasting Network, referring to Christian refugees in general: “We are going to help them. They’ve been horribly treated.” (source)
Now while there are still more details that are to come, remember that President Trump recently said that the USA will bring persecuted Christians into the country. We reported on this a few days ago.
Perhaps there was an error in judgment with immigration- this happens. Perhaps there are more nefarious details to this story which have not been revealed yet- another common situation. Nevertheless, this is something that needs to be watched closely because our support of Trump does not give blind license to everything he does. Any man in power must be watched carefully and his words scrutinized alongside his actions. This is not picking on Trump- it is sensible judgment in an America where truth is what the most popular person in the room says it is and mob mentality has too much rule and would apply no matter who is in office- Trump, Obama, or somebody else.
The ancient Christian desert father St. Isaiah the Solidary wrote about the passions of the soul, and he noted that the passions of the soul are good in so far as they rouse men to life and act in accord with righteousness. However, passion becomes deadly when it leads a man even a tiny bit away from God, for a little bit has a large effect. Applied to the current political situation, we are very passion at Shoebat.com as are many people about many changes that President Trump is making and with good reason. However, our passion for the good is not a pass for license, and if it happens, it has to be called for what it is.
We will provide more details as they emerge.