Today I depart from the usual teaching stuff. I am a teacher
of English as a Second Language. I have a great deal of experience with
refugees, many of them Muslim. From time
to time, friends and acquaintances ask me about the issue of Islam, refugees,
and terrorism. I probably get these questions more than most ESL teachers
because, I travel in different circles. (In addition to being an EMT, licensed
security guard with large event and concert experience, and martial arts and
self-defense enthusiast, I am also a Paladin Press author with some wonderful
cyber-contacts in these fields.)
It’s kind of an elephant in the living room issue in English
as a Second Language teaching with few wishing to talk about it. These days,
many, many ESL students are Muslims and if one cannot work with Muslims, you
probably should not be working the field. (Should one wonder, I can work with
Muslims. In fact, when I applied for my job teaching ESL to refugees, I used a
Muslim refugee as a reference.)
Claims of a connection between a terrorist threat from
Islamic refugees are much exaggerated, in my assessment. I have tried to keep
abreast of the issue and if forced, I could offer less than a handful of examples
where there is a very loose, often tangential link between Islamic refugees and
terrorism in the USA. Much of the issue hinges on definitions. For instance,
see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/19/the-viral-claim-that-not-one-refugee-resettled-since-911-has-been-arrested-on-domestic-terrorism-charges/
A Washington Post article on the issue.
This article from the Brookings Institute offers further
valuable insights.:
However, there were problems.
The system has been overhauled and had some problems as
detailed in this LA Times article: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/18/nation/la-na-refugee-terror-20110719
This was in response to the arrest and conviction of two
Iraqis, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan, who are reported to
have entered as refugees and were found to have extensive histories of
terrorist and insurgent activities.
These can be detailed here:
However, when I read the articles I was left a bit confused
as to whether or not the pair had entered on refugee or asylum visas, a quibbling,
unimportant distinction perhaps but one that crops up again and again when
looking at this issue. (For instance, the Tsaernev brothers, the Boston
bombers, entered on asylum visas as teenagers, but were at times described as “refugees”
in some reports.)
However, there is this case:
Dahir Adin, a 23 year old who entered the USA on a refugee
visa while one year old, did commit a mass stabbing at a mall in Minnesota
before being shot by an off duty police officer. In other words, he was a
refugee, but a baby at the time with little memory of what it was like to come
here.
So what should an ESL teacher do? Well, honestly, nothing at
all is usually an appropriate response. Most refugees are ordinary people and
most Muslims are ordinary people too. It is important to remember that there
are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Of these, an estimated 3.3 million live
in the USA. If they were inherently violent and dangerous, at the very least,
the world would look quite different.
On the other hand, if you do see something quite strange or
that raises your suspicions it is probably best to quietly report it to the
authorities. That way you won’t have to worry about charges of “islamophobia”
from your supervisor. Also the authorities are more qualified to judge the
seriousness of what you’ve seen than a typical ESL school administrators. The
authorities often come at the state, local, and federal level and ideally
interact with each other. Often a local police officer should have some idea of
where to go to report a terrorism related concern should you see one.
I hope to write a second post soon on how to recognize
fundamentalist Muslims and distinguish them from ordinary, mainstream Muslims.
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