At a time when the Obama administration has been pushing for a sharp increase in the number of refugees from the Syrian civil war, they have been curiously reluctant to welcome Christian groups.  Specific Christian groups have been rejected.  More, the President has rejected the idea of favoring Christian refugees in spite of the fact that Christians are facing a genocide.

That may become harder now that one of his key cultural allies, Professor Cornell West of Princeton University, has issued a formal call for the Obama administration to recognize the Christian genocide in Syria and the Middle East.  Issued jointly with his colleague Professor Robert George, the manifesto states:

In the name of decency, humanity, and truth, we call on President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and all members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives to recognize and give public expression to the fact that Christians in Iraq and Syria—along with Yazidis, Turkmen, Shabak, and Shi’a Muslims—are victims of a campaign of genocide being waged against them by ISIS. In pleading that this genocide be recognized and called by its name, we join Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the European Parliament, and many others. We urge our fellow Americans and all men and women of goodwill everywhere to join us in prayer for those of all faiths who are victims, and in determination to act in the humanitarian and political spheres to aid them and put an end to their victimization.

The Catholic Church warns that the genocide is sufficiently sharp that Christianity is in danger of being eliminated from the Middle East within a generation.   Though they mention Shi’a Muslims as being the specific targets of ISIS, too, Shi’a militias are engaged in genocidal acts of their own and have strong defenders in the conflict (as do the Turkmen with Turkey).

It is also noteworthy that they fail to mention Jews, one of ISIS’s stated targets for elimination throughout the region it controls.  The administration has likewise simply ignored Jewish refugees, an odd omission since it and its allies cite the Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany as their model for encouraging us to accept many more refugees.  Israel is unable to field forces in the conflict to defend them, though it is willing to accept Jewish refugees.

Yet in addition to the fact that these groups are facing specific genocidal pressures, Christians and Jewish refugees would be relatively easy to integrate into American culture.  If a sharp increase in the number of refugees absorbed by the United States were necessary, it would make sense to bring the ones who are the best fit for the country.  Of those who are a less-good fit, the Yazidi and Shabak alone are without defenders or a natural home.  American refugee policy should face these realities.