Gabbard wrong to paint Syrian refugees as a threat to U.S. security

Several years ago I left my home in Damascus to escape the Syrian civil war. Currently, I am attending college in Virginia. I am writing to the people of the 2nd Congressional District of Hawaii, so that you can hear directly from a Syrian, rather than your representative in Congress, who loves to talk about my country. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is a distinguished veteran and a public servant, but I fear she has not provided an accurate account of conditions in Syria or the role of the United States.

First of all, not all Syrian revolutionaries are extremists. I come from a middle-class family in Damascus, and my family supported the revolution because it gave voice to the victims of the regime’s many horrendous crimes. My family has had members disappeared, tortured and executed long before the war, and this is an experience that touches most Syrian families. My family is also fairly progressive, with friendships and even marriages across ethnic and sectarian lines.

While Gabbard has repeatedly argued that the mainstream opposition is indistinguishable from Al Qaeda, this description erases the role played by Syrians such as myself, who had no religious motivation for their participation in anti-government protests. In fact, the revolution started with the goal of making Syria a more open and liberal society, and even now, there are armed rebel groups (some who receive minor support from the U.S.) that carry on these values.

Second, the regime does not represent a secular alternative to the revolution’s “religious extremism.” Gabbard regularly argues that the regime is “secular,” but in fact the Syrian government introduced religious extremism to the conflict. In 2011, when all of Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious communities participated in protests, the regime was already outsourcing policing and military responsibilities to religious, sectarian militias from around the region.

Today, these organizations, including Lebanese Hezbollah and their Iraqi equivalent, are the tip of the spear in anti-rebel operations. I, and many other Syrians, attribute the disastrous rise of ISIL, Nusra and other Sunni extremist groups to the overwhelming presence of Shiite extremist groups in Syria, working on behalf of the regime.

Third, Syrian refugees are not a threat to the United States. Gabbard was by far the most progressive member of the U.S. House to support the Republican- sponsored American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015. This bill requires the heads of all American intelligence branches to personally approve each refugee to be resettled in the United States.

In practice, this would mean a complete freeze on resettlement. I have family members in refugee camps, and these camps are full of women and children who have been living there for years. These families are known to the governments that host them (Jordan, Turkey), and the United States could resettle tens of thousands of Syrians without offering asylum to anyone who picked up a gun during the war. Gabbard’s opposition to resettlement is particularly galling given her status as a progressive leader, and the history of Hawaii’s 2nd District as a welcoming place to refugees.

Finally, I want Americans and people in Hawaii to know that we do not expect America to fight our war. We simply expect the world’s most powerful nation to vocally oppose war crimes and crimes against humanity, and show compassion to displaced people. In Gabbard’s view, the United States should ignore the regime’s crimes in the name of counter-terrorism, and close the door to vulnerable refugees. These positions do not reflect the values I associate with America, and I doubt they are representative of the 2nd District.

Anas Dre, who fled Syria via Turkey, is now in the United States on a student visa.