Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

The Last Syrian Refugees Arrive

State has taken in 75,000 refugees since 1970s, but Trump could slam door shut.

Syrian refugees Rula and Abdul arrived in Madison, Wis., on Jan. 20, 2017, with their daughters, ages 5 and 8. A week later, President Donald Trump halted any additional arrivals of refugees from the war-torn country indefinitely. They asked that their last names not be used for their own safety. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Syrian refugees Rula and Abdul arrived in Madison, Wis., on Jan. 20, 2017, with their daughters, ages 5 and 8. A week later, President Donald Trump halted any additional arrivals of refugees from the war-torn country indefinitely. They asked that their last names not be used for their own safety. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Rula and Abdul plied the narrow aisles of Madison’s Istanbul Market on Tuesday, looking for spices and other staples, such as dried jute leaves, that are hard to find in their new country.

The Syrian couple arrived in Wisconsin’s capital city with their daughters, ages 5 and 8, on Jan. 20, the day President Donald Trump was sworn into office.

A week later, Trump issued an executive order indefinitely barring Syrian refugees such as Rula and Abdul and temporarily blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, at least until new “extreme vetting” rules can be written.

The goal, the president said, is to keep “radical Islamic terrorists” out of America. The order is being challenged in several courts; critics charge it unfairly targets refugees.

Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute found that between 1975 and the end of 2015, “20 refugees have been convicted of attempting or committing terrorism on U.S. soil, and only three Americans have been killed in attacks committed by refugees — all in the 1970s. Zero Americans have been killed by Syrian refugees in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.”

In Wisconsin, Trump’s immigration order and earlier executive actions calling for local police to help with immigration enforcement and threatening to strip federal funding from states and cities that harbor undocumented immigrants are creating fear, uncertainty — and pushback.

Madison, Wis., Mayor Paul Soglin addresses about 2,000 people at a community immigration forum Jan. 29, 2017. Soglin has vowed that city police officers will not become immigration police for the federal government but will honor detainer requests for undocumented residents who have committed serious crimes. Photo by Michelle Stocker of The Cap Times.

Madison, Wis., Mayor Paul Soglin addresses about 2,000 people at a community immigration forum Jan. 29, 2017. Soglin has vowed that city police officers will not become immigration police for the federal government but will honor detainer requests for undocumented residents who have committed serious crimes. Photo by Michelle Stocker of The Cap Times.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has declared that while city police will honor federal requests to detain serious criminals, “We will not use our local police department as a tool to enforce federal immigration laws.”

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney made a similar vow. Addressing more than 2,000 people at an immigration forum in Madison on Sunday, Mahoney said he answered “Hell no” when asked by an agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement whether he would allow his officers to be deputized as federal immigration agents.

Refugees arrive from around the world

In 2016, Wisconsin received 1,877 refugees from nearly 20 countries, according to U.S. State Department figures, including four of the seven nations on the banned list: Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.

Among the new arrivals in 2016 were 119 Syrians, not including Rula and Abdul, who came in 2017. To qualify as a refugee, an immigrant must be persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution based on ethnicity, race, religion or other factor. Once they arrive, refugees are legal U.S. residents.

Abdul, a refugee from Syria who arrived in Madison on Jan. 20, 2017, demonstrates his butchering skills while Istanbul Market owner Yashar Tairov looks on. Tairov, who emigrated from Russia, said refugees such as Abdul are hard working and pose no threat to the United States. Abdul’s family arrived a week before President Donald Trump issued an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Abdul, a refugee from Syria who arrived in Madison on Jan. 20, 2017, demonstrates his butchering skills while Istanbul Market owner Yashar Tairov looks on. Tairov, who emigrated from Russia, said refugees such as Abdul are hard working and pose no threat to the United States. Abdul’s family arrived a week before President Donald Trump issued an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Gov. Scott Walker vowed in 2015 that Wisconsin would not accept Syrian refugees after terrorists who had traveled to and from Syria killed 120 people in Paris. The governor later acknowledged he has no legal authority to block their entrance, although Trump’s latest executive order calls for possibly giving states and local governments more control over immigration.

Joe Scialfa, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, confirmed that states currently cannot control where refugees are placed. Wisconsin serves as a pass-through for federal money used for resettlement by designated nonprofit agencies. That amount totalled $5 million in 2016, Scialfa said.

“State refugee programs have no role in this process; it is entirely a federal process and is funded 100 percent with federal dollars,” he said.

The agency estimates Wisconsin has taken in 75,000 people from 50 countries since the 1970s when the first wave of refugees came — Hmong people from Laos, tens of thousands of whom died helping the United States in the Vietnam War and the “secret war” in Laos.

Madison welcomes new refugees

Rula and Abdul’s resettlement was the culmination of a four-year quest. Rula, an elementary teacher, and Abdul, a chef, left their homeland in 2012, joining millions of Syrians fleeing a brutal five-year civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people have been killed. They asked that their last names not be used for their own safety.

Through a translator, Rula said their home in Syria was burned, and the family fled to Jordan, initially living in a refugee camp. Her daughters grew ill, Rula said, and the family moved in with others in the city of Amman, and later moved to the suburbs. For two years, their oldest daughter was unable to attend school, Rula said.

Syrian refugees Rula and Abdul shop at Istanbul Market in Madison, Wis. The couple arrived in Madison on Jan. 20, 2017 with their elementary-age daughters. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Syrian refugees Rula and Abdul shop at Istanbul Market in Madison, Wis. The couple arrived in Madison on Jan. 20, 2017 with their elementary-age daughters. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Ten months ago the family was approved for refugee status, although Rula and Abdul still did not know where they would end up.

“She was just counting minute by minute to leave the country and come either to the USA, Norway or Canada,” said Rihab Taha, a caseworker for Jewish Social Services who translated for the Syrian couple during their recent shopping trip.

Once refugees arrive in Wisconsin, local agencies, including Jewish Social Services, Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities and others help to line up services such as temporary cash assistance, housing, health care, enrollment in school and participation in Wisconsin’s welfare-to-work program, W-2.

Rihab Taha, left, a caseworker for Jewish Social Services who came as an immigrant from Sudan; Becca Schwartz, resettlement coordinator for JSS; and Rula, a newly arrived refugee from Syria, shop at Istanbul Market in Madison, Wis., Jan. 31, 2017. Rula and her family came to Madison just one week before President Donald Trump indefinitely halted all refugee immigration from Syria. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Rihab Taha, left, a caseworker for Jewish Social Services who came as an immigrant from Sudan; Becca Schwartz, resettlement coordinator for JSS; and Rula, a newly arrived refugee from Syria, shop at Istanbul Market in Madison, Wis., Jan. 31, 2017. Rula and her family came to Madison just one week before President Donald Trump indefinitely halted all refugee immigration from Syria. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Becca Schwartz, resettlement coordinator for Jewish Social Services, said she is helping three Syrian families in Madison, including Rula and Abdul’s family. Resettlement of two more Syrian families and a group from Eritrea are now on hold, she said. In Sheboygan, a family of nine scheduled for resettlement by a different agency has been blocked by Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees.

“It’s really frustrating because we are trying to do some important work. It makes me worry for the safety and security of the people we would’ve been settling here,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz said her agency in Madison has been “flooded” with offers of help for the new arrivals, including jobs, apartment furnishings and volunteer translators.

“There has been an incredible outpouring of support from the public,” she said.

Refugees split on Trump policy

Yashar Tairov is the owner of Istanbul Market, the Middle Eastern grocery tucked into a small strip shopping center on Madison’s west side where Rula and Abdul were shopping. Tairov said his relatives, who are of Turkish descent, emigrated from Russia to the United States in 2005.

Emin Buzhunashvili is owner of Mr. Delivery, a Madison, Wis. business that makes home deliveries of restaurant meals. Buzhunashvili arrived in the United States in 1996 from Azerbijian. He said President Donald Trump’s immigration orders are aimed at keeping the country safe. He was photographed Jan. 31, 2017 in Madison. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Emin Buzhunashvili is owner of Mr. Delivery, a Madison, Wis. business that makes home deliveries of restaurant meals. Buzhunashvili arrived in the United States in 1996 from Azerbijian. He said President Donald Trump’s immigration orders are aimed at keeping the country safe. He was photographed Jan. 31, 2017 in Madison. Photo by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

“They don’t want to give me no job, no school, nothing,” Tairov said, describing the discrimination his family faced as Turkish immigrants to the former Soviet Union.

Tairov said the United States should welcome refugees, whom he has found to be hard-working and “happy to be in America.” He pointed to Abdul, who eagerly pitched in, cutting a hefty beef roast into chunks that Tairov fed into a meat grinder. Rula said her husband has been unable to find steady work since the family left Syria.

“I don’t think refugees are something wrong or something bad,” Tairov said. “These are not bad people, refugees. They’re just hard-working people.”

Tairov’s friend, Emin Buzhunashvili, stopped by to check on business. Buzhunashvili came to the United States in 1996 as a refugee from Azerbaijan. Buzhunashvili owns Mr. Delivery, a Madison business that delivers food from groceries and restaurants. He said it is the president’s duty to keep America safe.

“I don’t see anything he (Trump) is doing wrong,” Buzhunashvili said. “He’s not doing anything religious. What I understand is he’s trying to clean the bad people from coming in.”

Asked about Trump’s indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, Rula said it is “very painful” because there are “many others eager to come here for a better future, for a better education for their kids.”

More than 2,000 people attend a forum on immigration Jan. 29, 2017 in Madison, Wis. Organizers had expected a few hundred people, but turnout ballooned after President Donald Trump issued a series of orders cracking down on immigration. Photo by Michelle Stocker of The Cap Times.

More than 2,000 people attend a forum on immigration Jan. 29, 2017 in Madison, Wis. Organizers had expected a few hundred people, but turnout ballooned after President Donald Trump issued a series of orders cracking down on immigration. Photo by Michelle Stocker of The Cap Times.

Taha, the caseworker, also was an immigrant. A native of Sudan, she came to the United States 17 years ago as a college student and was allowed to stay. Now a U.S. citizen, Taha has three American-born children. Because of all of the debate about immigration, Taha said her 10-year-old son has asked whether his family will be allowed to stay.

“ ‘Mom, is it true that Donald Trump’s gonna kick all the Muslims outside the United States?’ ” Taha recounted, fighting back tears. “I don’t want him to feel that he is not welcome here because he is Muslim or brown or African or based on any category. But I don’t know, I hope things will get better because I live here, I have my friends here, I have my work here, my job, my home, my car. Come on, I mean, this is a free land.”

Taha said Rula also worries how her family’s new life in America could be affected by shifting U.S. immigration policies.

“I said to her, ‘Do you think the new orders will affect your status or your benefits from being here?’ and she said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t want to think about it.’ ”

Wisconsin Public Radio reporter Alexandra Hall contributed to this report.The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

3 thoughts on “The Last Syrian Refugees Arrive”

  1. Ben says:

    Sept. 11, 2001 – Nineteen al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four American passenger planes in a coordinated attack on U.S. soil. Nearly 200 Americans were murdered by the terrorists who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and flew it into the Pentagon, collapsing its western side. Meanwhile, two other planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were flown into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both 110-story towers collapsed, killing 2,752 people. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was flown by terrorists diverting the flight to Washington, D.C. However, passengers fought the hijackers, and the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing 40 passengers.

    Feb. 16, 2002 – Muslim snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad kill Keenya Cook in Tacoma, Washington. The snipers would kill 21 more people in a crime wave that stretched from coast to coast.

    March 19, 2002 – Jerry Ray Taylor, 60, is shot by snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad at a Tucson, Arizona, golf course.

    Sept. 5, 2002 – Paul J. LaRuffa, 55, is shot and wounded by snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad in Clinton, Maryland, in the parking lot of his restaurant.

    Sept. 14, 2002 – Muslim snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad wound Rupinder “Benny” Oberoi, 22, outside a liquor store in Silver Spring, Maryland.

    Sept. 15, 2002 – Snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad would Muhammad Rashid, 32, outside a liquor store in Brandywine, Maryland.

    Sept. 21, 2002 – Snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad kill Million A. Woldemariam, 41, outside an Atlanta, Georgia, liquor store. Snipers also kill Claudine Lee Parker, 52, outside a liquor store in Montgomery, Alabama. The snipers shot Kellie Adams, 24, in the neck as she approached a liquor store in Montgomery, Alabama, where she worked.

    Sept. 23, 2002 – Snipers kill Hong Im Ballenger, 45, outside a beauty store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They also kill James D. Martin, 55, outside a supermarket in Wheaton, Louisiana.

    Oct. 3, 2002 – Snipers kill James L “Sonny” Buchanan, 39, while he mows a lawn near a car dealership in White Flint, Maryland. Premkumar A. Walekar, 54, is murdered while he pumps gas at a station in Aspen Hill, Maryland. The snipers kill Sarah Ramos, 34, as she sat outside a shopping center in Silver Spring, Maryland. They also murder Lori Lewis Rivera, 25, while she vacuums her car at a Shell gas station in Kensington, Maryland. While she attempts to cross a street in Northwest Washington, Pascal Charlot, 72, is shot and killed by the snipers.

    Oct. 4, 2002 – Snipers wound Caroline Seawell, 43, as loads her car with her purchases in a Fredericksburg, Virginia, store parking lot.

    Oct. 7, 2002 – Snipers wound 13-year-old Iran Brown outside a Nejamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland.

    Oct. 9, 2002 – Snipers kill Vietnam veteran Dean H. Meyers, 53, while he pumps gas in Manassas, Virginia.

    Oct. 11, 2002 – Snipers kill Kenneth H. Bridges, 53, as he pumped gas at a station near Massaponax, Virginia.

    Oct. 14, 2002 – Snipers kill Linda Franklin, 47, in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia.

    Oct. 19, 2002 – Snipers wound Jeffrey Hopper, 37, while he walks with his wife in a restaurant parking lot in Ashland, Virginia.

    Oct. 22, 2002 – Snipers kill Conrad E. Johnson, 35, a bus driver standing in the doorway of his bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland.

    Aug., 6, 2003 – The Muslim son of a Saudi millionaire, Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, slashes the throat of an estranged Jewish friend, Ariel Sellouk, killing and nearly decapitating the man in Houston, Texas.

    Dec. 2, 2003 – A Jewish man, Joseph Applebaum, suffers from a swelling of the stomach that is easily diagnosed and treated. He was identified as Jewish on the front of his medical chart. But instead of receiving treatment, he is left to die by his Muslim doctor.

    April 15, 2004 – Fearing that his brother had molested his wife and daughter, Muslim man Ismail Peltek killed his wife by bludgeoning her on the head with a hammer and attacked his 22- and 4-year-old daughters with a knife. Peltek, 41, told investigators, “I was afraid that my family’s honor was taken.” He said he attacked his 4-year-old because he worried that she had been “sullied” by a gynecological exam, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, which reported that both daughters suffered fractured skulls. Investigators asked him, “if you had the opportunity to kill the family again, would you?” Peltek replied, “My female family, yes. My male family, no.”

    January 2005 – Somali immigrant Mustafa Mohamed, 30, slashes and injures six people at a retirement home in Alexandria, Virginia. One resident required 200 stitches. Another suffered a broken neck. A judge rules Mohamed is not guilty by reason of insanity.

    March 3, 2006 – Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, an Iranian-American seeking to “avenge the deaths of Muslims worldwide” and “punish” the U.S. government, intentionally runs down and injures nine people with his sport utility vehicle on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He pleaded guilty to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

    June 16, 2006 – A 62-year-old Jewish man, Paul Schrum, who had gone to the movies to see “X-Men: The Last Stand” in a heavily Jewish area near Baltimore, Maryland, is shot by Muslim gunman Mujtaba Rabbani Jabbar, 24. Jabbar shot Schrum three times in the upper body, walked into the lobby, placed his gun on a counter and waited for police.

    June 25, 2006 – Michael Julius Ford, a 22-year-old convert to Islam, uses a long-barrel handgun to shoot four co-workers and a police officer at a Denver, Colorado, Safeway, claiming the attack was “Allah’s choice.” One person died in the shooting spree. When Ford fired at police, he was shot and killed.

    July 28, 2006 – Muslim Pakistani man Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women, killing one, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building in Seattle, Washington. Haq grabbed a 14-year-old girl and used her as a hostage during the attack. Officials classified the attack as a “hate crime” rather than terrorism.

    Jan. 1, 2008 – Egyptian-born cab driver Yaser Said shoots and kills his two daughters in Irving, Texas, because they were dating non-Muslim boys. The daughters had run away from home a week earlier, fearing their father would kill them.

    July 6, 2008 – Muslim Pakistani man Chaudry Rashid, 56, strangled his 25-year-old daughter in Jonesboro, Georgia, after she said she wanted out of an arranged marriage. Police said the daughter, Sandela Kanwal, had argued with her father about the arrangement of her marriage to a man in Chicago. An officer explained, “At some point during the altercation, he ended up killing his daughter.”

    Feb. 12, 2009 – Pakistani-American Muzzammil Syed Hassan was the CEO of the first American Muslim TV network broadcast in English, Bridge TV. Hassan beheaded his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair, after she filed for divorce. Her body was found at the TV station. When he was arrested, he said he “felt an incredible amount of relief” after he killed the woman.

    April 12, 2009 – Upon learning that they had patronized a strip club, a Muslim man shoots and kills his brother-in-law and another man in Phoenix, Arizona.

    June 1, 2009 – In a drive-by shooting, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad – a convert to Islam who had traveled to Yemen and was deported to the U.S. for overstaying his visa – opened fire on U.S. soldiers standing in front of a Little Rock, Arkansas, recruiting office. Muhammad killed one private and injured another. When he was arrested Muhammad explained that he had planned to kill as many soldiers as possible and was given the assignment by Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.

    November 2009 – Iraq-born Muslim man Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, intentionally hit his daughter with his car and killed her because she had become “too Westernized.” He also attacked the mother of the girl’s boyfriend. Police said, “It occurred because [of] her not following traditional family values. He felt she was becoming too westernized, and he didn’t like that.” His daughter had backed out of an arranged marriage.

    Nov. 5, 2009 – Muslim gunman Nidal Malik Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, fatally shoots 13 people and wounds 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas.

    Dec. 4, 2009 – A Muslim graduate student from Saudi Arabia, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, stabbed his non-Muslim Islamic studies professor, Richard T. Antoun, to death to avenge “persecuted” Muslims. One of his roommates said, “He was all the time shouting in Arabic, shouting threats, insulting his country for no reason.”

    April 14, 2010 – A Muslim convert, James A. Larry, 33, became angry that his family would not convert to Islam and shot his mother, pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces in Marquette Park, Illinois. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and the intentional homicide of an unborn child. “He was upset at his wife and their family — he felt disrespected that they would not join his religion,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jim McKay said. “It didn’t matter if they were young or old, pregnant or not. He wanted them dead.” Larry also shot his 13-year-old nephew in the face, but the boy survived. When the man was arrested, he told officers Allah told him to kill his family, according to court records. According to a police report, he said, “I wish I had more bullets. I wish I had more bullets.”

    April 30, 2011 – Rahim Abdul Alfetlawi, 46, shot his step-daughter in the head at point-blank range in Warren, Michigan, after she refused to strictly adhere to Muslim customs. The family claimed the motive was not religion.

    Sept. 11, 2011 – Three Jewish men are discovered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with their throats slit from ear to ear and nearly decapitated. Authorities believed the murders were not random, and thousands of dollars in cash and marijuana were left at the scene. According to reports, authorities believe Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, both Muslims, may have been responsible for the triple homicide.

    Jan. 15, 2012 – A Jordanian Muslim man, Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 57, gunned down Iranian medical student, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, a friend of his daughter and a Christian convert who widely denounced Islam. He later killed his Christian son-in-law after his daughter married him without permission. Assistant Harris County District Attorney Tammy Thomas told a district judge, “He said, ‘I killed that b–ch, and you’re next. No one insults my honor as a Muslim and gets away with it.’”

    Feb. 7, 2013 – Yusuf Ibrahim, 28, shot two Coptic Christians to death and beheaded them in Buena Vista, New Jersey. He also removed their hands before burying their bodies in the backyard of an abandoned house. Quran 8:12 states, “When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!”

    March 31, 2013 – Reshad Riddle walked into an Ashtabula, Ohio, church and fatally shot his father after an Easter service. After the shooting, witnesses say, walked through the church holding the gun and shouted that the slaughter was “the will of Allah. This is the will of God.”

    April 15, 2013 – Muslim Chechen brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonate two pressure cooker bombs during the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring an estimated 264 others. After the bombing, they killed an MIT policeman, stole an SUV and exchanged gunfire with police. Tamerlan was shot and his brother drove over him with the stolen SUV. Tamerlan was pronounced dead at the scene. After a manhunt, police found Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in a man’s backyard. Dzokhar has been sentenced to death.

    Aug. 4, 2013 – A Muslim convert, Daymond Agnew, 34, went to an Ace Hardware store on a “mission from Allah to help people” before he fatally stabbed employee Daniel Joseph Stone 17 times.

    March 6, 2014 – Registered sex offender James Cosby, 46, is accused of bludgeoning his lesbian daughter to death and shooting her lover in Port Bolivar, Texas. Police believe he then dumped the bodies near a ferry gate. In his bedroom, Cosby had the Quran open to a page that says homosexuality is a sin, family advocate Quanell X told KHOU-TV. “It’s quite unfortunate but he had a real, real warped understanding, in my opinion, of the religion of Islam and its position on the gay lifestyle and what one should do,” Quanell X said.

    April 27, 2014 – A 30-year-old Muslim man, Ali Muhammad Brown, is accused of shooting to death two men in Seattle and a man in New Jersey. According to local reports, he told police the killings were “vengeance” for U.S. actions in the Mideast. According to court documents, he said they were “just kills” and that he was “just doing my small part” as a self-styled jihadist.

    Sept. 25, 2014 – Alton Nolen is accused of beheading a woman in Moore, Oklahoma. Co-workers reported that Nolen had been trying to convert them to Islam. Nolen reportedly used “some Arabic terms” during his attack and had an interest in beheadings. Nolen told a judge, “I’m Muslim. My question is, do you have any Muslims that can represent me as a Muslim?”

    May 3, 2015 – In Garland, Texas, Pamela Geller, along with her group the American Freedom Defense Initiative, hosted a “Draw Muhammad” event. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi of Phoenix responded to a call to “avenge the prophet” and traveled to Garland, where they were shot and killed by a security guard after opening fire in an apparent attempt to get into the building. The guard was wounded in the attack. Islamic radicals have since called for Geller’s head, and vow to kill anyone who “blasphemes” Muhammad.

    July 16, 2015 – Four U.S. Marines have been shot dead in an attack, reportedly by a lone Islamic gunman, on U.S. Navy facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said five people died in all, including the gunman. Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that the shooting suspect was identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24. Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait and emigrated to the U.S. where he reportedly became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

    The FBI is investigating two crime scenes, a Navy recruiting center at a strip mall where the first shots were fired, and a Navy reserve center about 7 miles away. More than 100 rounds were reportedly fired in a shootout with police at the recruitment center parking lot. The shooter then drove to the Navy reserve center and started shooting Marines, four of whom were killed. The Marines would not have been armed at a reserve Navy installation or at a recruitment center, both of which were described as “soft targets.”

    The four Marines who were fatally shot reportedly were attacked at the Navy Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway. A police officer at the first location was injured and was being treated at a local hospital for a gunshot wound to the ankle. “We are conducting this as an act of domestic terrorism,” said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for Tennessee at a 3 p.m. press conference. He came back to the podium 15 minutes later and backtracked, telling reporters “I would encourage you not to get caught up in labels…whether it was an act of terrorism or a crime.”

    Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/big-list-of-muslim-terror-attacks-in-u-s-since-911/#OKu68lACfACeQBhC.99

  2. Vincent Hanna says:

    WND?! Come on Ben. That’s the site of the founder of the birther movement. It peddles in alternative facts, conspiracy theories, and fear-mongering. It doesn’t get any less credible than WND. For shame.

  3. Tom D says:

    Ben (post 1). Would ANY of these attacks have been prevented had Trump’s ban been in effect for the last 50 years?

    For example, most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, and the others were from Egypt, Lebanon, and the UAE—NONE of which have been restricted even one iota under Trump’s plan.

    If Trump went after the countries whose citizens ACTUALLY attacked Americans, his ban wouldn’t be such a joke.

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