“Furious at YouTube, passionate about fitness and veganism: Shooter left warning signs, questions” (LA Times):
Aghdam entered the country as a refugee roughly two decades ago, a family member said. In one of her videos, she said she was born in Urmia, Iran — where she and other members of her Baha’i faith face discrimination — and that her family had spent a year and a half in Turkey.
Wikipedia on the Baha’i Faith:
- Backbiting and gossip are prohibited and denounced.
- Drinking or selling alcohol is forbidden.
- Sexual intercourse is only permitted between a husband and wife, and thus premarital, extramarital, or homosexual intercourse are forbidden.
- Abstaining from partisan politics is required.
- Begging as a profession is forbidden.
Let’s consider the interface between Nasim Najafi Aghdam’s Baha’i faith and U.S. culture.
- Gossip is prohibited and she finds that the front page of every newspaper is devoted to stories about which young Americans had sex with old rich guys 12+ years ago.
- Alcohol and premarital sex are forbidden and she is embedded in a culture where young people get drunk every weekend and have sex with strangers.
- Homosexual acts are prohibited by her religion and she lives in the country that invented the Gay Pride parade (see also frequent nytimes coverage of this topic)
- She is supposed to abstain from partisan politics and sees that the majority of Facebook content is people expressing outrage on political topics.
- Begging is prohibited by her faith and she is now in a country where roughly 74 million people are on welfare (see Medicaid and CHIP enrollment)
Clearly she had some kind of mental breakdown before shooting. But oftentimes people with mental issues do a lot better or worse depending on the environment (see “Environmental Connections: A Deeper Look into Mental Illness”). Wouldn’t she likely have been far less distressed if she had stayed in Turkey? Prevailing Turkish culture would seem to be much better aligned with the Baha’i rules than U.S. culture. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to use U.S. tax dollars to help Ms. Aghdam get established in Turkey than to bring her to the U.S.? Turkey has also experienced much stronger economic growth than the U.S. during the past 20 years so there should have been plenty of opportunity for someone with an Iranian education.
Readers: What do you think? Does it make sense to use tax dollars to bring someone who can’t practice the Baha’i religion in peace to the U.S., a country that seems to be specifically set up to drive crazy anyone who practices the Baha’i religion?
Related:
- How was the immigration of Akayed Ullah supposed to benefit native-born Americans?
- How was the immigration of Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov supposed to benefit native-born Americans?
- Orlando shooting was in the 51st year of our immigration experiment
- Permanent Club Med actually is cheaper than current U.S. refugee settlement?
- How do you integrate migrants from traditional societies into the U.S.?
Stick to helicopters Phil.
Bill S: Immigrating to a different country/culture has a roughly 50% increase in associated mental illness. This is well known in the academic psychiatric literature.
Philip: you are not taking into account the enormous value of increased diversity that our society enjoyed thanks to her presence. You can’t quantify that.
It should be very simple — AMERICA FIRST.
(1) Diversity, or the lack thereof, is should never be a concern or goal in immigration or accepting refugees. The scarcity of your culture, your race, you religion or your deviancy is not our problem or our interest.
(2) Your hardships and your plight is YOUR PROBLEM. The USA only grants asylum to refugees who are facing prosecution due to co-operation with US foreign policy, being spies for the USA or those whose entry is of demonstrable scholarly, scientific or economic value to the USA. America First!
(3) All Asylum seekers should be detained in concentration camps until their case is heard. They should be treated as a flight risk, potential illegal immigrants and not be allowed to leave the camp except to voluntarily return to their home countries or to a 3rd country willing to accept them. They will be given a tent, food, water and bathroom facilities. They may make phone calls and use the internet.
(4) The US Laws limits refugee admission to no more than 50,000 per year but does not require that we accept any. We should set a limit to the number of pending cases we are willing to entertain. When that limit is reached a notification should be posted on the US State department website and at all US diplomatic missions that we are no longer accepting refugee applications until the wait list subsides.
(5) Applicants cases will be heard within 30 days. Hearings are to last no more than 1 hour. Rejected applicants may make one appeal which will be heard in 30 days. Appeal hearings will last no more than 1 hour. Rejected applicants will be given up to 120 days to find an alternative country to got to. All failed applicants must be deported within 180 days of arrival.
(6) If you do not like American refugee policy, you do not have to seek asylum in the USA.
I say forget the helicopters and stick with immigration!
@Dwight , your plans require a level of logistics competence that has never been, and will never be seen in the colonies. A man can dream but let’ stay grounded in reality. You are talking about the USA, not Norway.
‘Applicants cases will be heard within 30 days’? in the US of A? Is it the transcript of some stand up?
It’s just part and parcel of living in a big city.
Dwight
From this day on, the official language of Untied States will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now… 16 years old!
@Dwight Looi – American IS first because of our history of welcoming those seeking refuge from persecution, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.
That’s why you are here, that’s why I am here, that’s even why PhilG is here and is able to enjoy his helicopter thing.
To deny this is to deny who we are and should continue to be as a nation.
I will say that I do like at least part of your point #5. The current backlog of 100s of thousands of asylum cases, detention centers and lack of due process is unacceptable.
Because it makes perfect sense to evaluate policies involving tens of millions of people by examining the actions of a single atypical individual.
@federico
If a hearing in 30 days is ludicrous, how about speedy trials for common criminals? Is that ludicrous too?
We only care about the Constitution when convenient!
@Viking — I am not saying speedy trials are ludicrous as an idea, what I am saying, it is ludicrous to expect the populace of the USA to have the competence to attain such much needed outcome. Americans will never be able to do that. Maybe if Canadians take over, but I would not be so sure. It is the USA, not Northern Europe. You gotta work within your limitations.
Federico, you seem to have an inflated an unwarranted opinion about Scandinavians. The trial of Anders B Breivik was a circus lasting for months. It was still going on in May 2012, ten months after the crime. It included a judge crying, but not having the decency to remove herself from the case following showing evidence she could not stay detached.
Following the other non flying, non photography topic of this blog, the family court, the Norwegian family court granted custody to a BPD mother, over a competent father, and probably caused 77 deaths. Yes, competent Scandinavians!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik
No government kiss every month in Turkey.
Except for the last two, it’s the same as Mormons, no?
Neal-
Would you support more stringent gun control measures against a population of hundreds of millions of Americans based on examining the actions of a few atypical individuals?
Sam: No. It does not make sense to focus on the kinds of shootings typically in the news when evaluating potential gun control measures.
I think that immigration should be restricted to only let in hot young women, and she qualified under that criterion, so what’s the problem here?
Great points. I’m always troubled when a refugee has an easier path to US Citizenship, bypassing other legal Immigration methods. In theory, refugees should always return to their homeland once feasible. Moreover, State Dept. should never accept any applicant without a moral oath of a meaningful ASSIMILATION to American culture – must be mandatory, no exceptions.
Also, something odd that she could buy arm and ammo in CA, a very strict “anti-self defence state”, more untold or hidden facts we need to know.