Posted on 02/01/2017 6:41:16 PM PST by marshmallow
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hookah smoke drifted through the restaurant as Elias Shetayh and Aziz Wehbey spoke intently about their support for President Trump, whose temporary halt on immigration from war-torn Syria — their homeland — had touched off a political firestorm. Nearby, a waitress carried out several platters of Mediterranean food to a large Arab American family.
Trump is right, in a way, to do what he’s doing,” Shetayh said, discussing the executive order banning certain immigrants from entry into the United States. “This country is going into a disaster.
Allentown and surrounding Lehigh County have one of the country’s largest and most established communities of Syrian Americans, many of them emigres who moved from the “Christian Valley” in Syria decades ago. They have helped a steady stream of family members join them in the United States, and — to the surprise of many — offered strong support to Trump during the presidential election.
Gathered at Saado’s on Sunday, Wehbey, Shetayh and Shetayh’s wife, Georgette, took turns talking proudly about Syria and expressed pain at seeing the country split in two. Elias Shetayh’s view is a common refrain up and down the 6th Ward, where many agree with Trump’s decision to end the Syrian refugee program, even as they dispute the wisdom of his blanket ban on all legal immigration from Syria as too extreme.
“We would not like to bring refugees for a simple reason: We do not know their background,” Wehbey said. “We’re concerned about, if God forbid a terrorist attack happened here . . . that we’re all labeled as bad people. I hate to say it.”
The national conversation about the U.S. position on accepting refugees of the Syrian civil war has hit a fever pitch in the days since Trump signed an order halting the program, amid......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Hookah smoke
____________________________
LOL
was he a big caterpillar ???
I worked with some Syrian immigrants in Allentown. They seem to have their heads screwed on straight.
BTTT!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.