Over half of the US states have publically stated that they will refuse to have anything to do with the migrants. The US has promised to take in 10,000 - 15,000 refugees from Syria.

Reasons to take them in:

-Help Europe, yo! European countries are taking them; why shouldn't the US?

-The US is a nation of immigrants. It is hypocritical of the US to not take them when they have in the past, and shows a sense of Islamophobia.

-Muslim does not equal Terrorist.

-Where's your humanity!? These people are running away from the conflict. Why do you think they want to do you harm?

-It's only 10,000 people, come on, man.

-They are supposed to be fixing the vetting process.

- Obama ~ "Are you scared of widows and three-year old orphans?"

Reasons to NOT take them in:

-If Europe can't help itself, then that shows we shouldn't place ourselves in their situation.

-The US is, indeed, a nation of immigrants, but not of refugees from a state sponsor of terrorism, the very first country added on the list.

-Not all Muslims are terrorists, but with the crap-tier vetting system, there is no way to pick out the bad apples. We already have extremist sympathizers in our borders.

-These people are running from conflict. A conflict we had a part in, and not for the better. It is guaranteed that a few of them are actually hostile towards the US, because we don't exactly have a good track record with Syria. Tensions will be high, and eventually, the rope would snap.

-10,000 is still a big number. It doesn't change the fact that we are taking a risk.

-The vetting process for Syrians will suck indefinitely. They can only be checked with the information we have, and since Syria and the US haven't cooperated with each other for decades, and since the country is in turmoil, it does not suffice. There is too great a risk.

-Before the Sochi Olympics, there was a new sensation sweeping the Russian nation called, "Black Widows." These are women who have sworn a life of revenge for their (Muslim) husbands being killed. The US has some Syrian blood on its hands through its actions, and lack thereof.

-There are young children being trained by ISIS as we type.

-There is too great a risk that people who are hostile towards the US are being let in, and as a nation, your own people should come first.

-France took in refugees, and now it has closed borders after being attacked at its capital. At least two of the terrorists have been confirmed to have been foreign-born.

-One of the passports used a name that matches that of another that was detained in Turkey. Even more evidence that we don't know who we would be letting in.

Edited 11/19/2015 22:36:55

I forgot to mention:

Add your own points, everyone. Has a nice, civil discussion.

The Paris terrorists were not refugees. For whatever reason, the U.S. has had less of a problem with home-grown radical Islamic terrorism than Europe has had, in spite of having a large Muslim population.

We should take more than 10k Syrian refugees.

Also, asking that guy for a civil discussion is a waste of pixels.

truncate the muslim community is rather small in the US truth be told. Nothing compared to Europe. In France surveys are hard to make since ethnic/religious datas are forbidden by the French Law, in France we do not take any importance for ethnicity or religion such as in the US (it is in our very principle about men being equal, and should not be penalized about their origins), that's why datas are unknown, but some scholars suggest there would be at least 15-20% of Muslims in France.

I actually believe Islam could already be the first religion of France, seeing the number of atheist/non religious people.

Thank you, Truncate, for catching that.

Angry Panda - you're right. According to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country

something like 7.5% of French people are Muslim, vs. less than 1% in the U.S. The total number is less than twice as many, though, since the U.S. is a much more populous country.


Edit: I would have guessed much more than 1% for the U.S., just because the percentage is much higher in the places I've lived.

Edited 11/19/2015 22:47:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV315xqbRK8

I did click on that link, but am not interested in watching it - from what I saw, it shows video of what is claimed to be refugees behaving badly in Hungary, with the claim that these incidents were ignored by the news media. I guess there are a million things that happen every day that people don't pay attention to, for whatever reason.

I live in Budapest at the moment, and was here when there were many refugees camped out at Keleti station. It was crowded, and the facilities were inadequate, so it smelled very bad and people got sick. Police wouldn't let the refugees on the trains, whether or not they had valid tickets. A friend of mine had to step over people to get on the metro to get to work.

One night, I think after Hungary lost a soccer game to Romania, but I'm not sure, there were a bunch of drunk Hungarian guys in black shirts wandering around, sirens everywhere, and police in riot gear. I guess the drunk guys wanted to beat up the refugees, but the police wouldn't let them, but that's mostly speculation on my part. Sirens, drunk and menacing Hungarian men going to Keleti, police in riot gear - those I saw in person. Whatever happened, seemed bigger than the incidents shown in the video, but wasn't picked up on by the international media (for whatever reason).

Eventually, the refugees were bussed on to Austria. They had an unpleasant experience here, but overall didn't cause lasting or severe problems for Hungarians.

Edited 11/19/2015 23:39:11

15% out of 70 million is something like 8-9 million of Muslims in France
1% out of 300 million is 3 million in the US.

So yeah even in term of numbers, Muslims are way less in the US than in France alone, so about Europe with 500 million inhabitants the number of Muslims would be way higher.

Edited 11/19/2015 23:30:49

I was going from the link I posted, which cites the Pew report as saying that France has 4.7 million Muslims, vs. 2.6 million in the U.S. Who knows if that's an accurate estimate, though - your guess might be better.

Whatever the exact numbers, your basic point is definitely right: there are many more Muslims in Europe than in the U.S., so even if the rate of dangerous terrorists in the domestic Muslim population is the same, it's no surprise that there are more problems with domestic Islamic terrorism in Europe.

Edited 11/19/2015 23:35:20

well this is rather difficult to estimate as I told you. As many Muslims (I know personally) are also atheists. So yeah, there were never any official surveys nor estimations nor accurate counting of people based on their ethnicity and religion, and I think this is rather good. I have nothing against Muslims, and they can one day be more than Christians in France, I would not care that much, as long as they accept and respect our secular state, and do not put in danger our freedom and be tolerant to each other.

Why do you list the weakest, almost strawman points for and better built and more points against?

Angry Panda,

(I had to)

"As many Muslims (I know personally) are also atheists." is like saying
"Many terrorists are also anti-terrorists"

I suggest everyone here go to https://www.numbersusa.org/ to see how accetping even 10000 is a huge mistake. We would be better off spending the resources on finishing the war and restoring order. History has shown dictators like Assad/Gaddafi/Mubarak/Hussein are the best way to do this. Also, the risk of an attack like in Paris is not worth it. If an equivalent attack occurred, 500 ish would be killed/wounded, or 1/20 of the # of 'refugees' allowed in. It may sound heartless, but I would rather have them stay in Syria and maybe 1000 die than have them come and 500 AMERICANS are killed/wounded. Of course, this is only acceptable if we try to solve the root problem.

"The US is a nation of immigrants. It is hypocritical of the US to not take them when they have in the past, and shows a sense of Islamophobia"
1. How is it 'Islamophobic' to be worried about terror attacks, as nearly every terrors=ist attack in recent history has been committed in the name of Allah?\
2. https://www.numbersusa.org/ has youtube vidoes showing how contrary to popular belief, immigration has never been the major population increase atalyst until recently, even in the immigrant-happy early 20th century.
3. If they came to us and applied correctly, ok. We have never TRIED to bring people here

generalpe, i feel there are a number of things you miscalculate. and not just in terms of math.

there are many incidents on U.S. soil that could easily be called terrorism, if the perpetrators were muslim. Except they are not muslim, so they do not get the terrorism label. which is quite unfair, considering.

Edited 11/20/2015 02:44:02

Why do you list the weakest, almost strawman points for and better built and more points against?

It looked to be a pretty objective list to me. If you think the points in support are weaker than you'll have to analyze for yourself why that seems to be.

As many Muslims (I know personally) are also atheists.

Forgive me, but aren't those mutually exclusive? Unless Muslims and Christians are now being counted as ethnicity along with Jewish.

"Forgive me, but aren't those mutually exclusive? Unless Muslims and Christians are now being counted as ethnicity along with Jewish."

They (Muslims and Christians) are in some cases. For instance majority of Norwegians can be considered Christians, but also irreligious. That is being Christen refers to what culture you are from, not your belief regarding god(s).

{~75% are part of the church, while only 22% believe there is a god}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Norway

Also guns kills more people then immigrants/refugees, so why allow the former but not the latter? (I am sure you all know what thread I am hinting at)

Edited 11/20/2015 03:02:49