On November 16, Governor Pat McCrory, in concert with other Republican governors and congressional members, called for the federal government to cease accepting refugees from Syria and vowed to stop accepting Syrian refugees into North Carolina. In light of the complicity of the United States and its allies in the creation and arming of ISIS, and in particular the role of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in creating the refugee crisis, this action cannot be viewed as sincere concern on the governor’s part.

ISIS is a creature of the United States that came into being to fill the political vacuum created by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our clumsy attempts at regime change in Syria created a new space for ISIS to occupy. Arms that were intended for “moderate” rebels in Syria and for Kurds in Iraq have ended up in the hands of ISIS. Our allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, pretend to fight ISIS while providing material support to them. Saudi Arabia is the source of Wahhabi Islam, the repressive fundamentalist ideology that ISIS espouses. Turkey, a NATO member country, freely allows militants and arms for ISIS to cross its borders, while closing the border to Syrian refugees and Kurds fighting against ISIS.

The Syrians who have been displaced by the ongoing war are not terrorists. They are ordinary citizens whose homes, jobs, and neighborhoods no longer exist. McCrory and his conservative cohort present them not as people displaced by war but as primitive and dangerous outsiders. Like citizens of the United States, Syrian refugees want peace and prosperity, and the United States has played a primary role in denying those conditions in their homeland.

McCrory has no authority to deny them entry into North Carolina—refugee resettlement decisions are made only on the federal level—and he knows that the United States already has stringent background checks in place. The North Carolina Green Party calls on Governor McCrory to stop promoting distrust and fear against Syrians, and to make North Carolina welcoming to all political refugees and asylum seekers.

For more information, contact Wayne Turner, North Carolina Green Party co-chair, at (919) 491-3186 or [email protected].