Syrain refugee crisis and islamophobia

 Final Syrian Refugee Crisis and Islamophobia paper:

 Immigration and turmoil in the Middle East have always been “hot topics ” that resurface in every presidential election. Even though there are many other presidents who have taken discriminatory actions against certain minorities of people, such as internment camps for the Japanese in World War II, this is the first election where the United States has a president elect who is racially prejudiced and Islamophobic. Donald J. Trump, the soon to be United States 45th president, is islamophobic to such an extent that he has proposed an unconstitutional ban an entire race of people (Muslims) from entering the U.S, because he assumes that all Muslims are terrorists. In other words, he is committed to this unjustified action because he is arrogantly trying to cover up the fact that he does not know the difference between the majority of Muslims who practice the peaceful religion of Islam and a small minority of politically motivated radical extremists who kill their own kind. Amid all the islamophobic hysteria, the United States is trying to deal with an unprecedented number of Syrian refugees coming into the country, who are trying to escape the Syrian Civil War. Although we are called upon to act, our political parties are very polarized; some do not believe that the United States should play much of a role in helping refugees directly or indirectly. Congress is extremely divided on this issue of whether to assist Syrian refugees. The only way to solve this humanitarian crisis is if Western nations and the world come together regardless of their differences. One approach to ending this crisis would be to create solutions through a worldwide collaboration of countries sponsored by the United Nations. However, in order to find solutions to the address the social barriers faced by Syrian refugees, Islamophobia must be overcome. Even though Islamophobia is not the direct cause of the crisis, it is still a strong barrier to finding solutions to this social problem. 

     In order to understand the severity and the extent of this humanitarian crisis, we need to create a context in which people can study the history of Syria. This allows people to discover what factors led to the Syrian refugee crisis. As a result, people need to analyze the roots of the Syrian refugee crisis, because Syrian refugees are a result of the Syrian civil war. There are many causes of the Syrian civil war, which was inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya (the Arab Spring in 2011). Similar to the nations that were part of the Arab Spring, many Syrians wanted to overthrow the dictatorial Assad regime due to the lack of freedoms and economic woes which fueled public anger and resentment of the Syrian government. Conflict began with anti-government protests that divided Syrian citizens into two groups. One group remained loyal to their President Bashar al-Assad, while the other group opposed Assad’s regime and fought for democracy in Syria (BBC News 2016). However, the conflict escalated to a civil war when peaceful protests for Assad to resign turned violent during an incident where 15 boys were detained and tortured for having written graffiti in support of the Arab Spring. One of the boys, 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb, was killed after having been brutally tortured ("Syria's Civil War Explained", 2016). President Assad responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, military officials formed a rebel group, named the Free Syrian Army, which called to overthrow the government; this eventually morphed into a full scale civil war. ("Syria's Civil War Explained", 2016).

The Fighting between the two groups finally escalated to the capital of Syria, Damascus and the financial district of Aleppo in 2012. “According to the United Nations In June 2013, the Syrian civil war had killed 90,000 people.” (BBC News 2016). In addition, the United Nations also reports that by August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000.” (BBC News 2016). At that point in time, the United Nations declared The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (BBC News 2016). This is because the United Nations found evidence that all parties involved in the Syrian civil war committed war crimes. These crimes included “murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances” (BBC News 2016). The United Nations has also accused both parties involved in the Syrian civil war of causing civilian suffering – “such as blocking access to food, water and health services through sieges - as a method of war.” (BBC News 2016). In August 2013 the United Nations discovered that Syria had chemical weapons, after an incident in which hundreds of people were killed, after rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at several suburbs of Damascus (BBC News 2016).Western powers said it could only have been carried out by Syria's government, but the government blamed rebel forces (BBC News 2016). When President Assad was faced the threat of US military intervention, only then did Assad agree to the complete removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal (BBC News 2016). The chemical weapons are still being used today in the Syrian conflict. My research shows that the discovery of chemical weapons in Syria was the final straw that led to the Syrian refugee humanitarian crisis. Although the discovery of chemical weapons was a very significant factor in the development of many refugees in the crisis, global warming also played a large role in their displacement.

The multiple droughts in Syria was one of the factors that led to the large-scale displacement of Syrian citizens. The process of global warming has led to very severe droughts that plagued Syria from 2007-10, and caused as many as 1.5 million people to migrate from the countryside into cities, which exacerbated poverty and social unrest ("Syria's Civil War Explained", 2016). As a result, these people were forced to become refugees. The drought played a huge role in worsening the Syrian Civil war and increasing the amount of Syrian Refugees. As discussed above, drought and civil unrest are the reasons why the Syrian civil war has ultimately led to an enormous Syrian refugee crisis, which is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. As a result of the Syrian Civil War, 4.5 million people have fled Syria, and most of them are women and children (BBC News 2016). In addition, countries neighboring Syria such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history (BBC News 2016). About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the burden (BBC News 2016). Furthermore, 6.5 million people are internally displaced inside Syria, and 1.2 million were driven from their homes in 2015 alone. (BBC News 2016).

Although it is important to analyze the causes of the refugee crisis from its source, the Syrian Civil War, people cannot look at this crisis from only one angle. However, in order to truly understand this crisis, people have to be like sociologists and peel away the layers individually, in order to see where the problems are really located and find solutions. As a result, we need to look at all of the different aspects of this conflict in order to solve this problem. Moreover, this is why it is crucial to study the perspectives of how countries around the world and western nations, such as the United States, are dealing with the refugee crisis. Therefore, people need to understand the United States’ relationship to this crisis and their policies on how we see the conflict in Syria as part of the equation to find solutions and solve the crisis. Thus, we can understand why the Obama administration has an anti-Assad regime position on the crisis in Syria. In fact, the Obama administration thinks that president Assad is responsible for all of the war crimes and tragedy in Syria. In addition, the United States believes that Assad needs to resign and that there needs to be a negotiated end to the conflict in Syria, with a peaceful transition of government. The Obama administration is in favor of admitting Syrian refugees to the US. Obama wants to help Syrian refugees because they believe that Assad is a dictator and he has committed many war crimes that have led to the Syrian refugee crisis. 

In order to fully understand how to solve the refugee crisis, people need to analyze the policies from both the perspectives of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and presidential elect trump in the 2016 campaign. Hillary had a number of policies in favor of the admission of Syrian refugees to the United States. In addition, despite the fact that there has been a recent spree of terror attacks, Hillary Clinton still wanted to increase admissions of Syrian refugees. She had a policy to increase Syrian refugees by 500% into the United States (Leary 2016). Furthermore, not only did she support president Obama’s plan to admit ten thousand Syrian refugees in the United States, but also she believed the United States should be doing more to help Syrian refugees once they are resettled. In fact, during an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, Clinton was asked if President Barack Obama’s plan to increase the number allowed into the United States to 10,000 was enough. (The United States had accepted about 2,000 in 2015.) (Leary 2016) Hilary Clinton responded,

“Look, we’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II, and I think the United States has to do more, and I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000 and begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in,” (Leary 2016).

In other words, she wanted to increase admission of Syrian refugees from ten thousand to sixty-five thousand refugees. As a result, Hilary would have to change her admission policy of Syrian refugees from a five-hundred-percent increase of refugees to a five hundred and fifty percent increase of refugees.  

Another one of Clintons policy involves the resettlement of one million Muslims. Under Hillary Clinton’s stated proposals, Muslim immigration would grow substantially faster, adding nearly one million Muslim migrants to the U.S. during her first term alone (Haranran 2016). According to the department of homeland security, the U.S. permanently resettled roughly 149,000 migrants from predominantly Muslim countries on green cards in 2014 (Haranran 2016). Clinton has said that as President, she would expand Muslim migration by importing an additional 65,000 Syrian refugees into the United States during the course of a single fiscal year, which is significantly more than Obamas 10,000. Clinton has made no indication that she would limit her proposed Syrian refugee program to one year. Under Clinton’s policy, Syrian refugees would come on top of the tens of thousands of refugees the U.S. already admits from Muslim countries (haranran 2016) Although she wanted to expand the Syrian refugee population to 65,000 refugees, she made no plan of action as to how she is going to support the Syrian refugee’s’ life in the US. 

The Democratic Platform is very different from Clinton’s policies in many ways. First, the Democratic Platform is fifty pages long, but there is only one paragraph about the Syrian refugee crisis in the entire platform. However, unfortunately, the paragraph on Syrian refugees is under the heading of a global threat not a humanitarian crisis. This is a very important finding for my research on how the media and politics in the most powerful nation in the world, the United States, are negatively representing Syrian refugees. With that said, people cannot forget the fact that Clinton supports the admission of Syrian refugees in the United States and she is trying to create policies to help Syrian refugees, rather than dismissing them as a global threat. Therefore, the Democratic Platform does not represent the true scope of the Syrian refugee crisis. In fact, the Democratic Platform contradicts what Clinton stands for. The paragraph in the Democratic Platform is just a very broad general overview of the Syrian refugee crisis with no detailed explanation on how the crisis started and no action plan by the Democratic Party on how to help refugees. The first two sentences of the paragraph send a bad message to the world. The first sentence reads, “The Syrian crisis is heartbreaking and dangerous, and its impact is threatening the region, Europe, and beyond” (The American Presidency Project Democratic platform, p. 23). The first sentences are obvious but at the same time the sentence minimizes the social problem of refugee displacement. However, in the second sentence there are two problems, where not only does the Democratic Party not provide a plan of action for refugees, but they point fingers at Donald Trump’s policy on banning Muslims by saying he, “would inflame the conflict by alienating our allies, inexplicably allowing ISIS to expand in Syria, and potentially starting a wider war.” (The American Presidency Project Democratic platform, p. 23).

     On the other hand, Donald Trump’s policies during the 2016 campaign were anti Syrian refugees because he still does not support Syrian refugees coming to the United States, and he wants to ban the entire Muslim race from entering the United States. The only thing that I found on Donald Trump’s website about the Syrian refugee crisis was a small paragraph called “Refugee Program for American children” (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/ positions/immigration-reform). The paragraph does not even mention anything specific about Syrian refugees or the civil war. Despite the fact that Donald Trump is now president-elect, his website does not have any policies on how to deal with Syrian refugees. Trump’s plan for Syrian refugees, if he even has a plan, is vague. However, he wants to increase admission requirements for any type of refugees and asylum-seekers coming to in the United States in general because he wants to crack down on abuses. (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/ -reform). This is because he thinks that refugees are dangerous, and he over-generalizes the fact that all Muslims are terrorists. This is why his refugee policy is very limited. In addition, his plan also entails that the United States should spend more money placing children in foster care in safer homes and communities. Donald Trump does not care about Syrian refugees to the point where rather than spending money on refugee programs he would rather spend the refugee program budget to help place American children without parents in safer homes to improve community safety in high-crime neighborhoods in the United States. As a result, he gives off the impression that the circumstances of refugees from any countries, let alone Syria or otherwise, are inconsequential and are not an important enough issue to spend money on. This is an opposite position from Hilary Clinton who is an advocate for Syrian refugees.  

There is nothing written on the topic of Syrian refugees in the sixty-six pages of the Republican Platform. However, according to a Washington post article on Syrian refugees almost half of Republican voters’ favor deporting all illegal immigrants in the United States and barring Syrian refugees from entering the United States. (Tankersley, Clement 2015). Donald Trump thinks this fact alone helps to justify his racist’s actions towards Syrian refugees and Muslims. However, this is not the case, because Donald Trump is acting discriminatory towards Muslims by just conforming to the view of his own party. Rather than coat-tailing on the views of the Republican Party he should be trying to educate himself about Syrian refugees in order to change his policies and change the Republican Party’s view Syrian refugees as criminals and terrorists. Donald Trump is racist towards Syrian refugees to the point where he even questions President Obama’s insanity when he said’ “Refugees from Syria are now pouring into our great country. Who knows who they are - some could be ISIS. Is our president insane?” (Schoeneman, 2016). This proves that the Republican Party does not care about Syrian refugees.

People also need to analyze the policies from both perspectives of former defeated presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Gary Jonson to implement new policies to help solve the refugee crisis. Ted Cruz was a popular candidate until he dropped out of the race. Ted Cruz’s position on the Syrian refugee crisis was very critical and direct for many reasons. First, he did not support admission of Syrian refugees into the United States. Furthermore, he had a very strong opposition to Obama’s Syrian refugee plan to let ten thousand refugees into the United States because he thinks that all Syrian refugees are radical extremists who are following an ideology that justifies murder. He also wanted to ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States, like Donald Trump. Moreover, Ted Cruz believes that people should be screened into the United States based on their ideologies in order to prevent radical extremists from coming to the country. 

Gary Johnson was a candidate for the Libertarian Party nominee. He supports the admission of Syrian refugees to the United States. In fact, he believes that it is the United States’ responsibility to take in Syrian refugees. Gary Johnson supports explained his claim during an interview with reason in November 2015, when he said, “We need to take our share, and I'm not sure what that share should be. I'd like to come up with a formula based on our coalition partners. I wouldn't say zero, but I don't know if 65,000 puts us in the category of' doing our part. Gary Johnson presidential campaign, 2016/Syrian refugees - Ballotpedia). As a result, this statement proves shows that he believes that the United States needs to do more to help Syrian refugees. In addition, he also wants to make a new Syrian refugee plan, but unlike Hilary, he does not think that increasing admission of Syrian refugees from ten thousand to sixty-five thousand refugees is doing our share to help refugees. In other words, he does not think that the United States is doing enough to help refugees, and we need to do more.

The Syrian refugee crisis has become a worldwide social problem. The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis in history. This is why we need to come together as a society in order to help and find multiple solutions to help solve the Syrian refugee crisis along with helping Syrian refugees who are already here settle to their new lives in the United States 

The only way to solve this humanitarian crisis is if western nations and the world come together regardless of their differences. As a result, an objective approach to ending this crisis would be to create solutions through a worldwide collaboration of countries sponsored by the United Nations. However, in order to find solutions to the Syrian refugee crisis, Islamophobia must be overcome. Even though Islamophobia is not the direct cause of the crisis, it is still a strong barrier to finding solutions to this social problem. 

An increase in Islamophobia and an irrational belief that all Muslims and refugees are terrorists is now causing an unprecedented ban on Muslims entering the United States. Such a belief is irrational because it labels and stigmatizes all Muslims, including the majority who practice the actual religion of Islam correctly and peacefully. Muslims are not radicals who justify killing innocent people. Such a notion goes against the teachings in the Quran, which absolutely prohibits the killing of innocent people. In fact, the Quran states that if anyone kills a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind” (The Holy Quran, Chapter Five, Verse 32). With an increase in Islamophobia, and an irrational belief that all Muslims and refugees are terrorists, many politicians, especially Republicans, wish to stop accepting Syrian refugees into the United States. This chauvinistic action is simply based on the stereotype that all Muslims are radical extremists like ISIS, which is a politically motivated organization of radicals who justify killing their own kind. In order to cure Islamophobia, people need become educated about to have a cultural education of the Muslim religion and its actual teachings. “Muslims” “practice the peaceful religion of Islam and renounce the violent practices of radical extremism. If people could address and recognize their Islamophobia, there would be no reason for people to fear Syrian refugees and stop them from coming to the United States. Because a great many Americans have misconceptions about the religion of Islam, many politicians, especially Republicans, wish to stop accepting Syrian refugees into the United States. This intolerant action is simply based on the stereotype that all Muslims are radical extremists like ISIS, which is politically motivated organization of radicals who justify killing their own kind. In order to cure Islamophobia, people need to become educated about the Muslim religion and its actual teachings. If the American people could join with the worldwide, peaceful Muslim majority and get past their Islamophobia, there would be no reason to fear Syrian refugees or need to stop them from coming to the United States. There have been multiple studies which have indicated the issues of the Syrian Refugee crisis. 

There have been many studies on the political, social, and economic status of Syrian refugees who have been living in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. These studies include one by Susan Bartels and Kathleen Hamill; the authors found that 500,000 refugee children have lived in Lebanon for 10 days or more since November 2013” (Bartels & Hamil, 2015). The researchers reported two main findings in this study. First many parents face a difficult choice between sending their children to work in potentially dangerous environments in order to support the family or sending children to school. However, even families who want to send their children to school have very limited resources, and often lack the food, income, and access to schools which accept Syrian refugees. The lack of opportunity and education for the children resulted in a second finding for Bartles and Hamil. The authors discovered that these constraints and limitations deprive children of adequate food, education, health care, and play. As a result, many Syrian refugee children have suffered both short and long-term physical and psychosocial development issues (Bartels & Hamil, 2015). This finding is significant because it shows that the safety and well-being of Syrian refugees is compromised. Furthermore, these findings show the internal and external struggles that Syrian refugees face, shedding light on the complicated dimensions of the refugee crisis that western society often ignores. This is why the refugee crisis is now a serious global phenomenon that has not only affected Syria, but also the entire world. Western countries such as the United States and Europe must expand their constrained perspectives on the Syrian refugee crisis and realize that they might be the refugees’ only chance at survival. In order to truly help these refugees, westerners must overcome their emotional disengagement from problems other people face. Unlike the westerner who can turn off the news and choose to watch a cartoon instead, the refugees face violence every day from which they cannot escape. Westerners are so distant from problems around the world that they do not see that war and economic livelihood are connected with the emotional and educational needs of children. In addition, many westerners turn a blind eye to other nations because the problems do not involve them.

Another study, conducted in January 2014, by Claude Bruderlein at Harvard University, is based on ethnographic research on the wider refugee problems caused by the conflict in Syria. The study produced four main findings. First, despite the fact that most people believe Syrian refugees live in camps, they commonly live in urban settings. In fact, in the five most popular host countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan), the number of refugees living in non-camp settings has risen from 81% in 2013 to 84% in 2014. It is important to mention that Bruderlein was indeed correct in her prediction: The Syrian refugee population has increased since 2013 (Bruderlein, 2015). The second finding was that because Syrian refugees prefer to live in urban settings, the registered refugee population of Jordan’s Za’atari camp declined by almost 40% between April and December of 2013. However, the Za’atari camp received an additional new 100,000 refugees during the same time. This indicates an increase in the absolute number of refugees; as a result, that turnover is very high and the camp is used as a way station to the cities. The third finding is the fact that many Syrian refugees are willing to make significant sacrifices to leave camps, as their safety is in jeopardy, as many Syrian refuges owe a significant amount of debt to smugglers. According to a survey by CARE International, more than 50% of participating refugee households living outside Jordanian camps reported incurring debts to smugglers of between 75 and 1,500 Jordanian dinars (roughly $105 to $2,115 U.S.) (Bruderlein, 2015). The last finding is that because there is a limited supply of houses and economic opportunities for Syrian refugees, they are forced to live with many people in unsuitable settlements such as tents, chicken coops, and garages. These overcrowded informal settlements lack basic amenities, such as electricity, heating, and access to water (Bruderlein, 2015). 

In order to understand how the Syrian refugee crisis became a social problem, we need to go back and analyze the meaning of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is the reason why the majority of the Republican Party, as well as many other Americans, are not letting Syrian refugees come to the United States. This goes beyond President-elect Trump’s bitter and sarcastic remarks about Muslims. According to the Washington Post, 55% of the GOP wants to ban Muslims from entering the country and deport the Syrian refugees that are already in the US (David, 2015). The Republican Party wants to ban Muslims because they see them as a threat to national security; however, this belief is not supported with evidence. 

A study by Amir Saeed (2015), emphasizes the rise of Islamophobia in Britain, and the media’s contributions to the increase. The study shows that because of Islamophobia in the media, the public assumes that the Muslim population is radicalizing. As a result, people who used to be identified with a place of origin, or even as “people of color” have become recognized by their assumed religion. For example, this notion is most evident by the racist stereotype, ‘Pa the Ki.’ The author explains how the racial category of ‘pa the Ki’ is used to identify a person from Pakistan, living in Britain. Despite this stereotyping, British Muslims want to identify themselves as British. Furthermore, after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the so-called War on Terror, it is now British Muslims who are identified as a group of potentially ‘false nationals’ and systematically constructed as “the other” (Amir 2015). The author makes an important point about how the representation of Islam and Muslims in the media is extremely negative, especially for British Muslims. According to Saeed, we have to make more strenuous efforts to ‘integrate’ British Muslims into British society and reassert their loyalty to the British state. He is not only describing the media’s discourse about British Muslims, but stating that the fact that people associate British Muslims with a war group like ISIS, is not going to create an anti-war effort, and instead of integrating Muslims, this discourse just alienates them further (Amir 2015). This study is important because it shows that the media in Britain---and by extension, the world---makes negative portrayals of ethnic minorities as the ‘other,’ and as a result, they are portrayed as alien outsiders to the ‘British way of life.’ This negative representation of British Muslims and other ethnic minorities originates in ideological thought (Orientalism) and recreates itself in a ‘new form of racist’ thinking (Islamophobia). Therefore, this system of thought suggests that British Muslims (regardless of citizenship) are still tied to the ‘foreign’ culture of Islam. The study proves how important the role of the media in representing Muslims is, and that the portrayal of the religion of Islam is crucial to how British Muslims are treated as British citizens (Amir 2015).

The rise of Islamophobia, as a consequence of the refugee crisis, is highlighted in a study by Enes Bayrakli and Farid Hafez, conducted in 2014. There are two major findings that resulted from this study. Firstly, Islamophobia gives insight into the preconceived notions of Muslim racists: in countries like Hungary, Finland, Lithuania, or Latvia, where only a small number of Muslims live, Islamophobia functions as a successful agent used to mobilize people (Bayrakli, Hafez, 2015). As a result, not only do a majority of people significantly overestimate the country's Muslim population, but they wrongly labeled Muslims as violent radical extremists, including innocent Syrian refugees escaping from war in their homeland. In addition, the fact that Islamophobia was used as a fear-mongering tactic after the attacks in Paris, has led to the debates on Islam and Muslims throughout the West. It also led to a new increase in concerns about letting Syrian refugees enter the United States and Europe, which has fueled the resurgence of racist and populist right-wing parties. Former Hungarian Secretary of State László L. Simon, for example, urged Hungarians to return to their Christian spirituality and have more children in order to counter the negative cultural effects of mass migration. The secretary warned that the “impending victory of Islamic parties imposing polygamy was destroying the remainder of European culture” (Bayrakli, Hafez, 2015). This strong Islamophobia is not restricted to the extreme right. In fact, the refugee migration has become increasingly associated with Islamic terrorism, and it has become the standard argument justifying a number of Islamophobic domestic and international measures. For example, the social democratic Czech President Milos Zeman, claimed Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was “an organized invasion” to “gradually control Europe” by masterminding the influx of refugees into Europe. (Bayrakli, Hafez, 2015).

These findings are significant because not only do they show the consequences and connection between Islamophobia and the refugee crisis, but they also prove that without such widespread Islamophobia in western countries, there would be less fear of letting Syrian refugees into the U.S and Europe. This study also demonstrates how dangerous Islamophobia is. Facts are forgotten, and fiction, created from fear, takes over; thus, people believe that Muslims pose a great risk to the democratic foundations of the United States and other western nations. In addition, racist attitudes towards Muslims also jeopardize social peace as well as the coexistence of different cultures throughout the world. Therefore, both civil society and states should work together to acknowledge the seriousness of this issue and develop concrete policies to counter Islamophobia. People in western nations should be educated by qualified personnel in regards to combating negative perceptions of Muslims. In addition, Muslim civil society has to be empowered with information to help combat Islamophobia, especially in the direction of how Islamophobia is in western nations.

A study of Syrian refugees in Jordan offers a personal look at the Za’atari refugee camp, and the surrounding urban areas of the conflict environment in order to gain a first-hand experience of the extent of the crisis. As the conflict in Syria continues to unfold, Jordan provides an excellent case study, due to its close proximity to the civil unrest and its past as a sanctuary for the refugees fleeing conflicts in Iraq, Palestine-Israel and Kuwait. This camp hosts more than 50,000 refugees receiving assistance from a number of governmental, non-governmental international and local humanitarian and religious organizations (University, York 2014). This study is important because it gives western nations a first-hand experience of the scale of the crisis, so that they are more aware of the problem. This study also looked at the living conditions in the refugee camp, specifically highlighting the fact that not only do they have a limited supply of food and shelter, but the area is so crowded that 95 families live in one street. (University, York 2014). As a result, this study provides an education for people all over the world about the severity of the crisis and the poor living conditions in refugee camps. The purpose of this research is to not only make important contributions to literature, but to strengthen services to help Syrians within the Za’atari camp by identifying the issues and challenges facing refugee communities and reporting them to camp authorities. However, this research also shows the extent of the crisis to western nations, to encourage them to provide aid to people fleeing the war-torn Syria. 

An article by Davis Harris on the refugee crisis, discusses how the Institute of International Education, ‘has helped Syrian refugees attain a college education’. According to Davis, the Institute of International Education has assisted students and scholars who are persecuted and displaced (Harris 2016). The institute has enabled more than 200 Syrian university students to resume their studies at institutions in the U.S. and globally (Harris 2016). Most recently, IIE developed a program called "From Camps to Campus", a pilot project that will provide scholarships to students from the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan (The Institute of International Education 2016). This research shows how important getting an education is for Syrian refugees, as it gives them more opportunities for jobs and social mobility, and an education is the best way for refugees to improve their life circumstances and move on from this tragedy. (The institute of International Education 2016).

              A study by Rochelle Davis and Abbie Taylor from The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, at The Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, shows how countries hosting Syrian refugees have played a major role in averting much larger humanitarian crisis; however, the crisis can only be solved by ending the fighting in Syria. We cannot ignore or neglect the voices of Syrian refugees in the discussions of Syria’s future and finding solutions for the crisis. It cannot be overstated that the solution to the displacement issue requires a political solution to end to the violence and insecurity in Syria, and the United Nations current efforts are not enough because they don’t address this political solution.

In another study, Oxford University conducted a one-year project across the three most popular host countries for Syrian refugees -- Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. The objective of the project is to inform policies that can enhance protection space for displaced Syrians within the region of origin. (Oxford University The Politics of the Syrian Refugee Crisis 2016)). In order to create a solution for the refugee crisis, we need to understand all of the politics that influence it. This in turn will point to new policy levers available to donor governments and the international community. There has been a growing body of research on refugees from Syria. However, people lack an understanding of the politics of responses by the main host states including Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Although we already know a lot about those governments’ basic positions at the capital city level, there is a lot more to understand at the local level. For example, how do municipal or district level authorities shape responses, and what potential opportunities does this open up?             

One approach that could fit in this space would be something like, historically, the U.S. and other countries have accepted refugees displaced by war and persecution, based on moral claims about the importance of defending human rights when countries and their citizens are able to do. Think tanks and social movement organizations are very important in trying to solve the refugee crisis because not only do they educate people about Syrian refuges, but they are also providing resources for the refugees. While some think tanks frame the crisis, Islamophobia is a major obstacle that needs to be overcome to improve the circumstances of the Syrian refugees being admitted into Western countries. While think tanks provide information, social movements provide a voice and programs to improve the circumstances of Syrians refugees that seek refuge in foreign countries. Therefore, social movements attempt to solve the refugee crisis. 

Many think tanks want to help and advocate for Syrian refugees. One think tank in particular is the European Parliament Think Tank, which is in favor of admission of Syrian refugees to Europe. In addition, this think tank has three main goals that include raising awareness, advocacy and finding solutions to the refugee crisis. Furthermore, the think tank constructs the problem of Syrian refugees not only as the worst humanitarian crisis ever, but they also believe the Syrian refugee crisis is a result of a “conflict- embroiled country and ongoing horrific human rights violations” (The European Parliament Think Tank, 2001). The think tank uses both original research and secondary sources such as information from the European Union and polices about how other western countries are dealing with Syrian refugees. For example, they made mention to Obama’s plan to admit Syrian refugees in the United States. As a result, the European Parliament Think Tank uses statistics as evidence to support their claim that the Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis ever, by stating the fact that more than 7.6 million Syrians are internally displaced. (The European Parliament Think Tank, 2001). In addition, approximately 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance and more than 4 million are refugees in neighboring countries and Europe (The European Parliament Think Tank, 2001). Therefore, my research on the refugee crisis has led me to the conclusion that there needs to be more initiatives and actions by the world to implement solutions to solve the crisis rather than just having mere suggestions on how the problem that will actually result in major changes to the circumstances of Syrian refugees.

 Western nations have a capitalist ideology, which makes a majority of people react to foreign problems with indifference, and hostility. This is the case with the Syrian refugees because people in Western nations do not realize that they have a false conscientiousness about issues that do not directly affect them. They do not react to facts, or problems, that do not fit into their personal worldview (Rizzo, 2016) As a result, it is important to know how to frame Syrian refugees and the refugee crisis in positive ways in order to find solutions. Therefore, even though the European Parliament think tank supports the admission of Syrian refugees, the negative way they frame the refugee crisis as a simple migration issue thereby belittles the seriousness of the refugee crisis. At the same time, this type of rhetoric and bad media representation of Syrian refugees is sending an extremely negative message to the word that the refugee problem is not an important enough issue to solve.   

Furthermore, Islamophobia is creating a fear of Syrian refugees as terrorists, causing the problem to get worse rather than being solved. In reality, in order to solve the refugee crisis, people need to stop hiding behind their fear of terrorism and islamophobia to understand that the majority of Syrian refugees actually are innocent people who are escaping their countries because of conflict. After all, refugees are not seen as terrorists but as innocent people in need of protection. Therefore, people need to change how they view refugees because the only way to solve the refugee crisis is to correctly identify the roots of the problem which not only lie in Islamophobia, but also how refugees are depicted. Generally, people identify refugees as people who need protection and a safe place to live not as terrorists. However, Syrian refugees are assumed terrorists rather than innocent people. If Western nations view the Syrian refugees the same as other refugees the world could find solutions for crisis. This approach would be the right and ideal one instead of our current approach of banning innocent Syrian refugees because they are falsely being lumped into the same category as terrorists, which is only stalling and escalating the problem. 

Another think tank that supports the admission of Syrian refugees is the Council of Foreign Relations. The Council of Foreign Relations reports that many countries in the European Union that have their own unique plans for Syrian refugees. This think tank has three main goals. The first goal is to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis. The second goal is advocacy for Syrian refugees and the last goal is to find solutions for the Syrian refugee crisis. Moreover, the think tank constructs the problem of Syrian refugees not only as the worst humanitarian crisis This think tank uses statistics to show just how horrible the refugee crisis is. In addition, countries in the European Union are debating the issue of who should take and share responsibly for Syrian refugees that are already in Europe. The Council of Foreign Relations emphasizes the need for long-term solutions because the refugees are continuing to increase and they are unlikely to subside in the near future. As a result, they believe that European leaders need to focus on the foreign policy origins of the asylum crisis as well as reformation of Europe’s asylum system ("European Council on Foreign Relations"). On the other hand, unlike the framing of The European Parliament think tank, The European Council on Foreign Relations is framing the refugee crisis as true humanitarian crisis in which western nations have to come together to share responsibility of Syrian refugees. This positive framing makes it more suitable to find solutions to the refugee crisis.

The Arab American Institute is a social movement and advocacy organization for Syrian refugees. This agency has three goals. The first goal is to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis, the second goal is to illuminate the cause of the refugee crisis, the final goal is to advocate for Syrian refugees and find solutions to the refugee crisis. The Arab American Institute frames the refugee crisis as a humanitarian crisis. Many existing regulations and provisions related to anti-terrorism and Islamophobia initiatives have made it increasingly difficult for Syrian refugees to resettle in the U.S. Recently, the Obama Administration eased the “material support” language of immigration regulations to enable greater Syrian eligibility for entry into the U.S. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, the U.S. admitted 1,883 refugees (Arab American Institute, 2016- ). This a minuscule number compared to our allies in the Middle East and Europe that built programs to take in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees over the next two years. In addition, the agency uses its own original research on Syrian refugees everything from the Syrian civil war to the humanitarian crisis. The purpose of the Arab American Institute in the refugee crisis is working to address the needs of Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon. Their primary focus is securing access for Syrian refugees and host communities, protection services, such as health care, rehabilitation, psychosocial and resilience support services. The group is also trying to obtain safe and sanitary housing, access to education including higher/ University education, training, skills and child protection for the Syrian Refugees and host communities (The Arab American Institute2016). This organization has the right approach for framing Syrian refugees as people in need of assistance, and not treating the refugees as criminals who kill people. This approach can help end the refugee crisis, because with this positive frame of Syrian refugees it is easier to find solutions to this humanitarian crisis.  

Another social movement organization for Syrian refugees is the Center of Religious action of Reform for Judaism the goal of this agency is to advocate for Syrian refugees and find solutions to the refugee crisis. They provide basic resources such as food, water, shelter and jobs for Syrian refugees. In addition, the agency uses its own original research on Syrian refugees, including everything from the politics of the Syrian civil war to the humanitarian crisis (Center Religious action of Reform for Judaism). 

  Think tanks are important tools used to frame and give Important Information about social problems, including the Syrian refugee crisis. Social movement organizations are important for the advocacy of Syrian refugees. Solutions to the problem of Syrian refugees have to be developed by a worldwide collaboration of countries around the world and the United Nations. In order to find solutions to the Syrian refugee crisis, Islamophobia, needs to be overcome. Even though, Islamophobia is not the direct cause of the Syrian refugee crisis, it is still a strong barrier to fixing this social phenomenon.

Most people do not know how serious the Syrian refugee crisis is. This is because Western societies only react and pay attention to a problem when celebrities make a statement about an issue, rather than their government. This is especially the case with Syrian refugees because many politicians especially Republicans are using fear and Islamophobia to create biased policies in order to ban the entire Muslim race and stop accepting Syrian refugees, even if a majority of them are innocent people who are in need of projection not violent meaningless killing of other Innocent people. This xenophobic action is simply based on the stereotype that all Muslims are radical extremists like ISIS. On the other hand, there is Hillary Clinton does not seem to have Islamophobia, but she wants to implement a fifty-five percent increase in the admission of Syrian refugees although she does not have a direct plan to do so. As a result, both Clinton and president elect trump have policies that are based on either fear or Islamophobia, or having a good reputation to get more votes than the other does. Therefore, Clinton and president elect trump suggestions on solving the Syrian crisis are not viable options. However, Lebanon and Turkeys policies about Syrian refugees are not biased towards a specific goal other than helping Syrian refugees.

There are many policies in Lebanon that help protect Syrian refugees. Two important policies are enforced and are inspired by The United Nations Refugee Agency, which is also a social movement organization that advocates for Syrian refugees. The first policy is the fact that The United Nations Refugee Agency will not only implement a strategy in Lebanon that emphasizes the fact of they are working on strengthening its role in providing support for protection of Syrian refugees, but they will also ensure the inclusion of refugees in government policies and development plans, particularly by building a better understanding of the specific needs of refugees and enhancing the capacity of service providers. At the same time, The United Nations Refugee Agency will coordinate the overall refugee response in Lebanon, working closely with Government, UN. In addition, they will preserve their inter-agency commitment to address the most basic needs of refugees, and invest in host community support projects, public services and institutions. As a result, the second policy is a new program to help provide Syrian refugees with access to legal documentation and assistance in case of arbitrary detention and unlawful evictions. The United Nations Refugee Agency will also seek to strengthen community-based protection by capitalizing on refugee and host community competencies and skills. Particular attention will be given to supporting the most vulnerable (including people with disabilities, the elderly, minority groups, and the socially marginalized) and to ensuring social cohesion within their communities (The United Nations Refugee Agency Lebanon global focus report 2016).  

Yes, this program should be used as a role model for Policymakers in the United States. This is because it serves as a guide and inspiration for western nations to implement new policies that do not just encourage changes, but actually provoke actions to make things happen for Syrian refugees in order to solve the Refugee crisis. This program is seen as a success because Lebanon is taking action to lessen the refugee crisis by giving refugees hope and providing them with the services they need to get more opportunities for social mobility, so they can break free from the circumstances of the refugee crisis in order to move on from tragedy and live better lives where ever they are.  

      Another country with actions to support Syrian refugees is Turkey. As a result, according to United Nations, Turkey now hosts the world’s largest community of Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict in their country. (Hamadan, 2014) Turkey’s Syrian refugee policies are flexible. Turkey has hosted refugees before from Iraq, however, since the start of the Syrian civil war, Turkey has implemented an unconditional “open door policy” toward Syrian refugees escaping from the conflict. At first Syrian refugees were considered guests rather than legal refugees, but since late October 2011 Turkey has afforded them temporary protection status, ensuring no forced return imposing no limit on their duration of their stay. Despite the fact that conditions in the camps managed by the United Nations Refugee Agency are extremely good, the refugees living outside the camps are more vulnerable, because most of them do not have the services provided by the Turkish government. However, there is one exception which is heath care because the Turkish government created a law that gives all Syrian refugees can benefit from free primary health care. (Hamadan, 2014)

It would be wonderful if these policies of universal healthcare were actually implemented by the policymakers in the United States. This is because it serves as a guide and inspiration for western nations to implement new policies that do not just encourage changes, but actually provoke actions to make things happen for Syrian refugees in order to solve the refugee crisis. They are very successful solutions to solve the Syrian refugee crisis however these policies are extremely idealistic, and there is no way that they could ever exist in the capitalist society of the United states. This is for two main reasons; first the main purpose of capitalism is to make a profit. As a result, there is no way that the United States would ever implement policies for free health care for Americans, let alone Syrian refugees. Second even if the United States believes that it duty to protect Syrian refugees the United States would never have an open-door policy for every single Syrian refugee because there is extreme fear of terrorism and Islamophobia. Therefore, in order to cure Islamophobia, people need to have a cultural education of the Muslim religion and actual teachings. Muslims practice the peaceful religion of Islam and renounce the violent practices of radical extremism. If people could address and recognize their Islamophobia, there would be no reason for people to fear Syrian refugees and stop them from coming to the United States. Consequently, people continue to struggle with Islamophobia because they do not address it.

Policies about Syrian refugees are not biased towards a specific goal other than helping Syrian refugees in countries such as Lebanon, and Turkey. In order to find solutions to the Syrian refugee crisis there is one important issue, Islamophobia needs to be overcome. With an increase in Islamophobia, and an irrational belief that all Muslims and refugees are terrorists. The understanding of Islam as a “peaceful religion that renounces the violent practices of radical extremism will lessen the fair of Muslims which would allow people to see them separate from terrorist groups, thus solving the Syrian refugee crisis”. It is crucial to view the opposing parties view on the Syrian Refugee crisis for a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand.

    Another way to understand the Syrian refugee crisis is to analyze President-elect Trump’s polices on how to solve the refugee crisis. He has proposed many policies such as the ban on Muslims from entering the United States and creating a data for innocent Syrian refugees. However, these policies will not create solutions for the problem because these polices frame Syrian refugees negatively as criminals or terrorists. However, his approach to the problem will actually make the issue worse because the majority of Americans believe that Syrian refugees are causing the problem when in reality are just innocent victims who need help and a safe place to live in order create better circumstances for themselves. As a result, he should really be implementing polices to help Syrian refugees to improve their situations and solve the crisis. In addition, his framing is using fear mongering tactics to increase islamophobia to avoid finding solutions to the conflict. Trump has chosen Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state based on the fact that he is a good businessman and he is a good negotiator with foreign governments however he has no experience with the refugee crisis or how to advocate for Syrian refugees and provide them assistance to save the crisis. Advocacy and assistance is what Syrian refugees really need.

I enjoyed writing this paper for many reasons. First, I thought the project was going to be impossible for me to complete. My paper was initially 41 because I became interested in the information that shocked me. This is especially true when I found out about Russia hacking the United States election so trump would win. I knew there was something wrong when he won because America is not racist to point where the American people would vote for a man simply because of Islamophobia. In addition, the American people are not ready for a woman as president, despite the fact that Hillary won the popular vote. Also, my research taught me a lot about how women are portrayed in media. I have worked extremely hard on this paper. I dedicated my entire last weekend and the entire semester to this paper and I believe that I became immersed in this project because I want to continue to research the refugee crisis and how Islamophobia is strong barrier for Innocent refugees. There is absolutely no reason for Americans to be afraid of Muslims who practice a peaceful religion the society. This did not make my me feel like I was forced to write a research paper, like the paper that I had to write for my psychology research methods last semester, which was based on only five objective research studies that had no wiggle for freedom of creativity, art, and the subjective hands on experiences of life. It was very hard for me to be analytical, but I did a great job and I really hope that I receive an A on my paper. I cannot believe that Donald trump is now president elect and he does not have any policies on Syria or the refugee crisis. I am very mad that there is absolutely nothing on Syrian refugees on his website. My research on Syrian refugees makes want to advocate for them and become an ambassador for the United Nations idealistically. I want to help people. As a result, ever since I was in seventh grade I knew that I wanted to help people and give back to the people who have helped me grow up by becoming a rehab counselor. This is the only way that I can make a difference in the world; by turning my individual problem into solutions that can create a path of advocacy for people who do not have a voice in society.

My paper research makes me realize that I want to take action. Not only do I want to become a therapist to help people with their problems, but I also want to become an activist to advocate for people who feel like they are powerless. This advocating is not limited to people with disabilities, but all people who need a voice because society has not heard them without judgment. I am a very open person and I love to talk to people to express myself. As a result, I want to be a therapist that makes people comfortable talking about a variety of topics so they can alleviate their frustrations to me. On the other hand, even if people do not want to talk about their problems I will listen to their frustrations as a friend if they just need someone to talk to. These are the reasons as to why my next goal is to get my master’s degree in rehab counseling and mental health.  

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