‘HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE SYRIAN REFUGEE BABY AYLAN KRUDI WHO BECAME AN ANGEL?’

 “Daddy, please don’t die.” Those were the last words that Aylan Krudi left before dying in the cold water. On November 3, 2015, a 3 year-old Syrian boy heading for Europe with his family was found dead on a Turkish beach. A young boy could have been with his older brothers and sisters playing around the alley, but he can’t see the world alive anymore. In Syria or the other countries that are suffering civil war, there are similar cases to Aylan’s. Do these children have any fault?

ALYN KRUDI

 These children have any fault?

 Several times a day, small refugee boats that have Syrian families in exile on board are capsized by strong winds and storms. They wanted to escape from the Syrian Civil War and IS, but their dreams and hope were also capsized. It was not just a strong wind or high wave that caused the boats to capsize; the causes range from vicious refugee brokers, strict immigration policies, and the cold shoulder of the world to Muslims. They all put the refugees’ lives in danger.

 ‘REPORTING ACTUAL CONDITION OF REFUGEES: THEIR HARD LIVES’

 The refugees’ lives are dangerous. Refugees, escaping from one war, are confronting another war because of absolute poverty and hunger.

 Following the European journalist’s project group ‘The Migrant Files’, the vicious brokers extorted 16 billion Euro from the refugees that unlawfully entered Europe for last 15 years. They extorted refugees’ whole fortunes and enabled their entries by bribing government officials at the borders. But the problem is that they don't offer refugees’ safety.

 Last summer, at the Austrian highway border, over 50 refugee corpses were found in a refrigerated truck. The brokers ignored the pleas of “We need air, we can’t breathe.” and kept driving until entering the border, stealing all the money, and throwing away the dead refugees. The Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece is also an important route for Middle Eastern refugees, but they constantly suffer from boat sinking and the risk of losing their lives. Because the smuggling brokers supply defective boats and life vests, the boats are not able to stand strong storms.

 As for Woman, In Syria, women’s social status is low so they often undergo forced marriage and human trafficking. As refugees, they are still in danger. The brokers often demand sexual favors from women and if they refuse, they are likely to be raped.

 As for children, they are in lack of education and try to survive by picking up metal or trash for a living. Children see their friends dying and their parents unwillingly taken to war or the IS. Children need to be protected and receive as much love as anybody else. They appeal to us to, “Please stop this war.”

 ‘WHY DO WE GET ANGRY JUST AT TERROR IN FRANCE?’

 Last November 13, France experienced a terrible terror attack in which 130 people were killed by IS. All over the world, people expressed deep condolences, but at the time some in the press reported that one of the terrorists had entered France disguised as a refugee. Anxiety over terrorism is spreading from IS to all Islamic refugees now. Anti-immigration sentiment in Europe is rising.

 That was the second terror attack in France in 2015. After the attack, there were extreme rightwing waves because a political party that claimed an anti-Islam position won the power at initial round of the nation-wide election. Some French committed hate crimes against Muslims like burning or vandalizing mosques as well as tormenting Muslims, especially women wearing   hijabs.

 Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were actively accepting refugees. But now they have changed their policies to say that if refugees don’t have official ID cards with pictures like passports, their entry is impossible. Angela Merkel, the German Prime Minister, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine as “a mother to refugees”, but she faces political consequences for unrestricted accepting refugees. It has become more serious after the French terror attacks, and her government was forced into a corner, so she announced that the numbers of refugees would be restricted. The US President Barack Obama wanted to accept ten thousand Syrian refugees in 2016, but many Americans severely oppose to his policy. There was a criticism about the policy toward refugees from Donald Trump, the Republican president candidate. He made a campaign promise to prevent more Muslims from entering the US.

 After the terrible terror in France, profile photos of Facebook, overlaying the French national flag, spread to cherish the memory of the French victims. But some people expressed a criticism of this. Although a lot of terrorist attacks and massacres occurred here and there in the world, people did not react emotionally to those incidents. But people made a great fuss at that time. One day before the terrorist attack in France, there were a series of suicide bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, so 40 people were killed. Also one month earlier there were suicide bombings in during a peace demonstration in Ankara, Turkey, so over 130 people were killed. A Russian airplane flying over the Egypt was shot down, so over 200 people were killed. IS was responsible for all of these tragedies. Actually in Syria and Arab countries terrorism occurs chronically. People forget this fact easily and do not cherish their memories, taking Arab terrors and victims for granted. Citizens of the world appear to have double standards.

 ‘WHY DID THE SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS EMERGE?’

 So, let’s look for the reason that refugees have increased.

 In Syria, about 73% of the people are Sunni, but about 13% are Shia who occupy most of the positions in the government. A dictator has ruled over Syria for the last 45 years. The tragic civil war began with teenagers’ graffiti. A teenager writing revolutionary slogans on a school wall got arrested and tortured. Syrian people heard the news and demanded this teenager’s release but the government reacted with excessive repression. Despite the bloody situation, the demonstration expanded nationwide. The government’s cruelty went beyond all reasonable bounds. If one person in a town was found to be against the government, the government would turn the whole town into ruins.

 Iran, sharing much in common with the Syrian government, helped President Bashar Al-Assad. Russia, North Korea, China, and Cuba also did. After that, Saudi Arabia, sharing much in common with many nations around Syria, started to become involved in the war. Finally, the US and other Western nations started to become involved in the Syrian war also. That is to say, it is not a religious problem but a political dispute where each nation’s interests are involved.

 During the chaotic state of civil war in Syria, the IS became more powerful and intervened in the Syrian war. IS called themselves a liberation army, and tried to integrate rebel armies hostile to Assad into their strength by force. Russia attacked the IS and its rebel armies because of the terrorism committed against the Russian airplane. What is worsening is the situation that the US stepped aside from Syrian Civil War. Rebel armies could not stay in Syria anymore. This is why many refugees are increasing in Syria.

 ‘WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC STATE?’

 1. Islam has a long history. Islam’s homeland is Arabia, originating in the conflict between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persians in 7 B.C. During the war between these two powerful nations, Arabs had prospered although they didn’t have their own country and they lived primitive lives under a tribal chief, not a king.

 2. Finally, Mohammed founded Islam, the religion, binding the Arabs together. They planned a conquest war. So they conquered Persia and weakened the Byzantines. A caliph, meaning Mohammed’s deputy, became Islamic Empire’s national command authority.

 3. At the time of the 4th caliph, the Shia Muslims that support just Mohammed’s lineal relation and the Sunni Muslims that believe caliph as the legal successor of Mohammed were divided and the conflict between them began. The IS that we know today are a branch of Sunni Muslims that regard Shia Muslims as the enemy.

 4. The Islamic Empire fell to the Mongols in 1258. In the power of the Mongols, Sunni Muslims became the Ottoman Empire centered in Turkey, and the Shia Muslims became the Sapabi kingdom, present-day Iran. The Ottoman Empire was a superpower in the 16th century, but after that, they were consistently defeated by Europe. Finally, nationalism around the continent grew stronger because of Napoleon and in particular the ethnic groups of the Balkan Peninsula wanted their independence.

 5. The Ottoman Empire wanted to play the key role in the independence movements in the Balkan Peninsula and Eastern Europe. The Russian Empire wanted to exercise their influence on the Balkan Peninsula as well, giving a hand to independence movements that helped to start the First World War. As United Kingdom, France, and the United States won the First World War with the help of the Russia Empire, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. In 1923, the nation of Turkey was founded.

 6. During the First World War, the UK aligned with Arab tribal families. Ultimately, however, the UK didn’t approve of total Arab independence. First, the UK actually had confidential agreements with the French early in the war where they planned to divide up the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Second, the UK announced that they would found a Jewish state in the area of Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. After that, the leading Arab family became the kings of Iraq (1921), Jordan (1921). Another Arab family also gave rise to the Saudi king (1932). From Israel’s birth to 1980, they were four major wars between Arabs against Israel and western influence. Arab countries were damaged a lot during these wars.

 7. Islamic governments were corrupt. Repeated wars and defeats against Europe made Islamism stronger. After the Soviet-Afghan War where the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Islamic militia groups were formed in earnest. The natives became mujahedin, the warrior. Some other countries’ Islamic young men took the same path. Finally, Osama Bin Laden founded Al-Qaeda and he became a leader of Islamism.

 8. Also in 1990, the Gulf War began when Iraq invaded Kuwait and once again enflamed Islamic nations into an internal struggle. Al-Qaeda waged a borderless war against the US on the grounds that the US exploited Gulf countries for oil resources and unilaterally supported Israel. After the  9/11 terrorist attack, the US started a retaliatory war in Afghanistan with the motto ‘War on Terror’. As a result it brought more confusion and disputes. It only caused Islamic militia groups who fight against US to become more integrated.

 9. IS was once an Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda. Originally that group’s name was ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) or ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) but it has been changed to simply the IS or the Islamic State. Jihadis (Islamic warriors) from Baghdad guide the group. In Korea’s case, Kim Sun Il (a Korean military supply contract firm employee) was sacrificed by the IS. After Syria became divided because of the civil war, the IS occupied not only parts of eastern Syria but also Iraq’s second largest city Mosul, the Mosul dam, and oil fields. The differences of the IS from other Islamic militia groups are that they have their own territory, recruit warriors through social media, and mostly target other Muslims.

 ‘DO ALL MUSLIMS SUPPORT IS?’

 Uncivilized public executions like decapitation and burning, refusing to differentiate between soldiers and civilians, the massacre of a minority races and religious minorities, sexual violence against women, and even recruiting children as warriors are some of the horrific deeds perpetrated by the Islamic State. They are causing anger all over the world against those who commit crimes in opposition to humanity. Many Muslims also sharply criticize them.

 Does the Koran, the holy book of Islam, say that Muslims can kill someone if they are not Muslim? No! The Koran says, “Don’t attack first. God doesn't love violent men.” The Koran didn’t demand that all world should be Islamized, but the Koran asks Muslims to abandon combat culture and become peaceful people. Actually, Muhammad himself only fought against invading enemies. But some kinds of Hadith, another type of Islamic scriptures, say differently: “My purpose is to fight against non-Muslims until they are all Islamized.” Like this, the IS distorted the Koran and cited some parts of holy texts useful for their violent goals.

 ‘IS THIS JUST AN ARAB PROBLEM?’

 There were irresponsible secret promises that Western countries made 100 years ago. After the First World War, the British and French governments divided Arab countries among themselves. The opinions of the Arabs, who were residents on that land, were not reflected in the process of territorial division, so conflicts of religious sects or tribes were overlooked. So Arab borders are straight lines. The UK supported giving the area of Palestine to the Jews, and this became the seeds of future Arab problems.

 In the age of the Cold War, both the US and the Soviet Union also tried to have Arab lands completely under their control and it made Islamist militants turn against those powerful nations. Now powerful nations are the same. The US and Eastern Europe take defensive attitudes against Russia’s air attack on the IS and Syria. They are busy filling their own pockets.

 Arab problems are not only their own, but the world’s.

 ‘REFUGEES ARE WITHOUT FAULT’

 It is not only the IS who distorts the Koran. These days, Christians also translate the Koran unreasonably, so that many people are apt to have a false view on the Koran. It has caused heated controversy through SNS. But it has been found that they are not real Koran contents. Hostile attitudes based on baseless bad feelings or fear are not right.

 Refugees are rejected and treated unjustly because they are Muslims from the countries where terrors by those who profess jihad has occurred. These refugees are treated as if they were terrorists just because they are Muslims. Refugees are religious people, not the IS; they are fleeing from the IS and their violent government. They are the victims of the war caused by the greed of powerful countries. We have to help and hug them. Our attitude can make not only good neighbors but also discourage terrorism.

 Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau opened the way for Canada to accept Syrian refugees. Trudeau said, “Canadians can make no distinction between skin, language, religion. We will show how to open our mind to refugees all over the world.” If we are ready to learn how Canadians love the world, the world will be warm enough to make refugees our friends.