KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The debate over Syrian refugees continued this weekend, with Detroit native Ben Carson traveling to Amman, Jordan, to visit a refugee camp.
Dr. Carson did not back down from his claim that the U.S. doesn’t need to take in refugees.
“Their main desire is the be re-patriotated in their homeland,” Carson said.
Eli Rubin, a history professor at Western Michigan University, says the rhetoric is reminiscent of America’s refusal to take in German Jews during the Holocaust, including a group that nearly landed on our shores.
“They went all the way to Florida and were turned around and sent back to Germany, where most of the Jews were unloaded and sent directly to the gas chambers,” Rubin said.
He said both situations combined religious bigotry with fear-mongering.
“About 50 percent of Americans had anti-Semitic views, but, most of all, and this was the reasoning for the decision by the government of Franklin Roosevelt, that they could be German agents,” Rubin said.
Rubin says the nation absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Vietnam after the conflict. None of them turned out to be Viet Cong sympathizers.
– John McNeill
