No, I won’t sign a petition against Syrian refugees

Let’s not play into the hands of ISIL, which is the real threat to our security, Mariam S. Pal says.

What a difference a week makes.

“Sign the petition, demand that Trudeau pause his dangerous refugee plan!” screeched the email on my screen a few days ago.

I started to read: Canadians were urged to put the refugee plan “on pause” because of the Paris terror attacks and also because “at least one of the terrorists was a so-called refugee.”

So if one of the terrorists was “a so-called refugee,” then all 4.2 million Syrian refugees (based on United Nations estimates), 75 per cent of whom are women and children, are now potential terrorists?

The answer is a resounding “yes” for the 30,000 Canadians who have signed this petition. My signature was needed to “assure the safety of Canadians” and to “guarantee terrorists will not be brought into this country.”

Since the new cabinet was sworn in, the Trudeau government has repeatedly stressed its commitment to ensuring that security checks are done for all Syrian refugees. That had been good enough for Canadians, but that was then.

In the aftermath of the horrendous and audacious attacks on Paris, should Canadians worry that the security screening of potential refugees will not be rigorous enough? According to the petition in my inbox, the answer is yes. And it all has to do with the power of a fake passport.

It has been widely reported that the Syrian passport conveniently found at the scene of one of the Paris attacks was fake and that it bore the name of a deceased Syrian soldier. It is astonishing how just one fake passport can turn Europe and other western democracies against Syrian refugees.

Within hours of the passport’s discovery, some European leaders had already declared

The possible involvement of a Syrian refugee in the terror attacks seems to have cast a dark shadow of suspicion over all Syrian refugees.

that the welcome mat for Syrian refugees should be rolled up and cast into the trash. The mayor of Quebec City announced that he had requested that no young men be accepted as refugees in his city — but orphans, they’re okay. He has since said that he may have misspoken. The possible involvement of a Syrian refugee in the terror attacks seems to have cast a dark shadow of suspicion over all Syrian refugees.

ISIL, whose brutal regime most of these refugees have fled, must be delighted to see how little it takes for western democracies to change their tune. Allowing the Paris terror attacks to slow or stop entirely the flow of refugees to Europe and other parts of the world plays right into the hands of ISIL, giving them new fodder to brainwash their acolytes and more people to tax.

Now, there seems to be a widespread belief that slowing down the refugee process will somehow result in a safer Canada.

What was wrong with the security screening that Canada already has in place? How do the Paris attacks render that process inadequate? Reading the doubts expressed in the petition, I wondered what more our government can or should do to ease the doubts of some Canadians. Broad and sweeping statements telling us to pause the process are short on specifics and long on fear mongering. Sadly, last year’s terror attacks in Ottawa and in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu were carried out by Canadians, and not by refugees or immigrants.

ISIL, not Syrian refugees, poses the real threat to Canadian security. Such analysts as Robert Fisk and Thomas Friedman have suggested that Saudi funds support ISIL. In 2014, Canada approved a $15-billion deal to sell the Saudis armoured vehicles and failed to prepare a human rights assessment that Canadian law requires for arms sales.

Stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia because they fund ISIL and deny human rights?

Now, that’s a petition I might sign.