ICC Note: President Obama has responded to criticism from some political leaders who have urged for priority to be given to Christians in the Middle East by calling such ideas “shameful.” While there needs to be recognition that the current violence in the Middle East has affected many groups, the action taken by the Obama administration towards Christians in the Middle East have left them feeling abandoned and forgotten.

11/17/2015 Syria (Weekly Standard) – In his press conference in Turkey on Monday, President Obama called “shameful” the proposals to give special treatment to Christian refugees from the Middle East.  Here’s some of what he said:

The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife. They are parents, they are children, they are orphans. And it is very important — and I was glad to see that this was affirmed again and again by the G20 — that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism….And the United States has to step up and do its part. And when I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims; when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution — that’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.

This is a standard Obama reaction to criticism: attack the motives of critics and use the most extreme version of their views to undermine their argument. It’s true that some critics have said that the United States should admit only Christians and never Muslims—at least until we have reliable vetting procedures for Muslims.

But in fact, the Obama administration has abandoned Middle Eastern Christians and other minorities during years of violent assaults. The Obama refugee program has simply ignored the plight of such religious minorities, treating them no better than Muslims despite the obvious fact that their own situation is far worse.

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