Weighing Compassion Against Public Safety - The Syrian Refugee Debate

At present, American politicians are moving forward with plans to import approximately 10,000 Syrian refugees. The governor of my state (Pennsylvania) and the mayor of my city (Pittsburgh) have both vowed to accept the refugees despite the opposition being voiced by a large percentage of their constituents (in full disclosure, I don't know the percentage of opposition at this time and that's why I didn't say "majority"). As usual, everybody on social media is having vibrant and heated debates about this policy, as if our opinion matters even a little bit.  I assure that in today's political climate, our opinion matters not.

However, I don't mean to imply that my opinion is the opinion of all. There are plenty of people (some of my friends & family among them) who feel that it's perfectly acceptable to bring the refugees into the U.S. This is despite the fact that Islamic terrorists in Paris France, who entered the country under the guise of being refugees, killed scores of people less than a week ago. Many of the dead aren't even buried yet. The bullet holes are still in the buildings and the scenes are still stained with innocent blood. Just yesterday, there was a breaking news story in the U.S. stating that 5 Syrian nationals have been caught trying to enter the U.S. with stolen/fabricated passports.   Another recent story, receiving almost no coverage at all, was about an investigation that has revealed that 73 TSA workers are on terrorism watch lists.  These are the people who are in charge of ensuring that you're safe when you board an airplane.  And they have links to the people who are hell bent on flying more airplanes into more buildings.  Who does that make sense to???

Look, I totally get why a lot of Americans are welcoming the refugees with open arms.  The stories of suffering are very compelling.  And it's human nature (at least for good-hearted humans) to reach out to help others who are in need.  I think the world needs a lot of more of that kind of attitude.  But this conflict boils down to a simple question:

Should our compassion be allowed to outweigh the obvious security risks?

I say "obvious" because we know for a fact, with 100% certainty, that ISIS (or whatever we call them today) does indeed plan to strike us here in the U.S. and they have already demonstrated that they will take advantage of our compassion and use the refugee crisis as a vehicle to facilitate that goal.  Those are their words (and actions), not mine.

It would be fantastic if we had a fully reliable system to weed out the bad guys from the good - if we could definitively verify the intentions of these people via background checks.  But that's far from the reality.  The government is not capable of conducting such flawless checks, nobody is.  The teachings of Islam instruct its followers to utilize deception as a means of compromising & infiltrating the enemy (that's you and me - we're on the same team here).  According to sharia, in certain situations, deception – also known as 'taqiyya', based on Quranic terminology, – is not only permitted but sometimes obligatory. For instance, contrary to early Christian history, Muslims who must choose between either recanting Islam or being put to death are not only permitted to lie by pretending to have apostatised, but many jurists have decreed that, according to Quran 4:29, Muslims are obligated to lie in such instances.  You don't have to believe me, you can research it yourself.

Regarding the background checks: we keep being told that there's nothing to worry about because the background checks are a lengthy (implied to be thorough) process.  I can tell you from my own experience, as somebody who had one of the highest security clearances obtainable by a citizen, that the process is indeed lengthy.  But not because it's thorough... it's because the government is extremely inefficient and lousy at their job.  What takes place during a background check could be done in a week instead of a year.  And I can guarantee you that no refugee will go through the level of checking that people like me go through.  They will be entirely different from the background checks that are conducted for security clearances.  They will be extremely shallow in their integrity and will no doubt be conducted by people who know little about security.  The background checks will do little to ensure our safety.  Especially since it will be impossible to verify even the identity of these people, let alone their past.

Those of you who know me, are aware that I work in the personal security industry as a firearms/self-defense instructor.  Anybody who's serious about this subject matter and wants to keep their skillset current and relevant, studies all aspects of violence extensively.  That means following crime trends and reviewing case studies.  It means an exhaustive examination of any & all information that you can get your hands on.  It means reading the reports and works of experts in the field.  It means breaking down incidents and following them back to their points of origin.  We are constantly asking ourselves "what specifically went wrong that led to [fill in the blank event]?".  And in studying violence, quite often (a HUGE percentage of the time), the single most common factor that led to somebody being victimized, was their willful suppression of intuition.  In other words, they had some indication (often just a "gut feeling") that they were in potential danger, but chose to ignore those primal warning signs.  There have been decades of extensive research done on this area of study and there are countless cases that can be studied.  In discussions with victims, researchers and investigators often hear the victims verbalize that they somehow knew that they were walking into a dangerous situation but proceeded anyway.  Why?  Because we are conditioned by experiences to dismiss these warning signs as mere paranoia.  Because the vast majority of the time, things turn out to be OK.  The "creepy" guy the elevator rarely attacks you.  The drunk homeless man ranting about nothing and invading your personal space rarely stabs you in the gut & robs you.  So, we learn over time to suppress intuition & instinct.  We become conditioned to err on the side of risk rather than caution.  This is especially true when emotions are dragged into the equation and we are made to feel like heartless monsters if we don't accept a risk to extend a helping hand to somebody who could potentially be a ticking time bomb, but could also just be a harmless soul in need.

One of the leading experts in the study of violence and how it can be successfully mitigated is Gavin DeBecker.  His #1-selling book, The Gift of Fear, should be required reading for anybody in the law enforcement or protection community and I highly recommend it to anybody who ever leaves their house.  All of the cases in the book are true stories.  It opens up with a horrific review of a rape case where a very security-conscious woman goes against her better judgement by allowing a charming stranger to help her carry her groceries to her apartment (you'd have to read the circumstance for full context).  She dismisses her intuition and misses several opportunities to avoid her fate.  Ultimately, it leads to her being raped for 3 hours and narrowly escape her murder.  And by the way... she avoided that murder, as the rapist/murderer was heading to her kitchen to get a knife, by finally paying attention to what the warning signs were telling her and acting on it.

I am very fortunate to work under the direction of, and study under, one of the most impressive security professionals in the industry: Sam Rosenberg, founder and president of INPAX.  If you've never seen one of Sam's presentations or trained with him, you don't know what you're missing.  It is absolutely captivating and inspiring.  I've read lots of books and I've seen lots of professionals talk on the subject of violence. I've never seen somebody who has such a firm grasp and command of self defense topics.  The dude is an absolute bad ass.  Anyway... in the active shooter trainings that we conduct for schools and businesses, Sam explains how "violence is as predictable as boiling water, if you know what to look for".  That extends beyond the personal security construct and applies to public safety on a macro level as well.  We delve much deeper into this concept when we conduct more extensive personal training for individuals.

Most of the time, violence can be avoided or minimized by being properly prepared and by trusting your gut instinct.  It requires an unemotional analysis of available data and the willingness to act on that analysis no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient it may be.  In the case of the Syrian refugees, we need to take the emotions completely out of the equation and ask ourselves the following questions:

1. Is this action going to actually address the root cause of the crisis and prevent it from getting worse?
2. Is this action consistent with the way that we've successfully dealt with similar crises in the past?
3. Given the data that we have on Muslims from the Middle East, is it reasonably safe to integrate them into our culture?
4. Given the direct warnings that we have from the terrorists, does it make sense to put our citizens (your kids, my kids, etc.) at risk of violent senseless deaths for the purpose of being the world's security shelter?
5. Should we be ignoring data, intuition, and common sense (which isn't so common these days) because it "might" be OK to do so?

One of my family members that I love and respect posted a picture today of a Syrian child (allegedly) sleeping in filth on a mattress in the dangerous streets of the middle east.  The wording of the post stated that fear is a good thing because it is an indication that you are about to do something brave.  I have a differing opinion.  Fear usually means you're about to do something stupid and dangerous, not brave.  It was an attempt to play on the emotions of Americans and encourage them to go against their better judgement and ignore the fact that the world around us is on fire right at this very moment as a result of allowing Islamic terrorism spread into the western world.  There simply could not be any more compelling data and warning signs to support the fact that it is too dangerous to proceed with such a reckless policy.

Dangerous times require an escalation of safety measures and a resolute focus on security and victory.  My friends, we ARE in the most dangerous times that we've ever been faced with.  The wolf is at the door.  We should be grateful that the terrorists are kind enough to announce & broadcast their intentions.  We could be in a much worse position of not knowing what they're going to do.  But we absolutely know.  If we dismiss that knowledge and continue down a path of self destruction, then we unfortunately deserve what's coming our way.

I respect your compassion and I think it's admirable.  But the stakes are much higher for me now.  I have two little girls at home that I need to keep safe.  So no... I'm sorry but your compassion and foolishness, as demonstrated by your willingness to suppress the warning signs, cannot be allowed to supercede the security of myself, my family, and all of the other innocent Americans that have a heightened sense of awareness.  If even an ounce of innocent American blood is shed as a result of letting in a terrorist who uses the cover of the refugee crisis, then the cost of your compassion is too high in this case.  And if my family's blood is among that of the fallen, then I will count you as an enemy along with the terrorists.

This isn't a republican/democrat or liberal/conservative issue.  It's a straight-forward common sense issue.  We have so much data to support a halt of this policy that it's laughable that we're even discussing it.  I'm all for helping the innocent Syrians (if we can identify them).  But we should be helping them OVER THERE.  That doesn't make me racist or bigoted.  It just means that I'm more in touch with intuition and data than other people are.  Let's help the Syrians.  Let's do what we can to make their homeland safe.  Let's fight the tyranny and oppression the way we always do, with military might and decisive action.  Heck, I'll even send food & money.  I'll buy a blanket for that poor kid who's sleeping on the mattress in the street.  I'll even send the bed frame for it.  But he cannot sleep in a bed in my house and I don't want him shacking up down the road from me either.  I know too much about the indoctrination of Muslims in the middle east that begins at birth.  I know too much about their intentions.  I know too much about their actions.  And I know too much about the innocent lives lost.