Don’t Blame Refugees for Paris

Islamic militants are responsible for what happened today in Paris, but remember that they are precisely what refugees arriving in Europe are running away from.

14 Nov 2015

One of the greatest disservices rendered to the refugees pouring into Europe from war zones is to say that they represent militant Islam. This means identifying the victims as perpetrators.

I’ve been working with Syrian refugees in Berlin since August. The stories they tell me are heartbreaking.

A young man from Aleppo, Ahmed, 25-years old (pictured below), tells me about how his city has been ripped apart by Islamic militants and the other armed factions of the civil war.

What does he think of ISIS?

“Look at me!” he says.

I look at him. He’s wearing jeans, a cream t-shirt, a tight leather jacket.

“I don’t want to be forced to grow a beard, to wear a robe, to be terrorized”.

I think he is amazed that I would even ask what he thinks of ISIS. His parents and his little sister are still trapped by them in the city.

Ahmed is a religious Muslim. He tells me he is concerned that people in Germany think Syrians and Muslims have a bad name. He laughs, ‘It will be my job! To convince Germans that Syrians and Muslims are good people!’

I’m so sorry that he thinks that is necessary.

Ahmed will do well in Germany if he is given a chance. After waiting outside, in the cold, every day, in indecent circumstances, just to get registered as a refugee in Berlin, he finally has his papers.  He wants to complete his university degree in Economics, which was interrupted by the war. His sister lives in Berlin, and he wants his parents to join them.

His sister told me when Ahmed first arrived in Germany: ‘When I look at my brother’s eyes, I see my father and my mother’s eyes too. I wish they were here with us’.

I wish they were too.

Today at noon ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacres in a Paris, for the more than a hundred dead.

But when I think of them, I do not think of people like Ahmed.

Nor should anyone else.

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by Joseph PEARSON

*This is the fifth in a series of articles on The Needle about the refugee arrivals in Berlin. Read the others:

1. Why Germany Welcomes Refugees?

2. Razor Wire and Refugees: What’s Happening Now in Berlin.

3. How Long Will Germany Welcome Refugees?

4. Berlin’s Appalling Conditions at Refugee Registration Center LaGeSo

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