I have watched the exchange between the pro- and con-Syrian immigration letter writers. I have previously stated that I would support the admission of Syrian Christian refugees as a safe alternative to Syrian Muslims and a way to reduce the Christian genocide in the region. We should not be allowing even a handful of potential terrorists to enter our country.

Both the Boston and San Bernardino terrorist attacks involved immigrants whom the FBI should have been watching but missed. Though I might have a greater chance of dying from a lightning strike than a terrorist attack (as our beloved leader chided us), I don’t play golf or huddle under the tallest tree on the course in a thunderstorm.

Since 2011 when the Syrian civil war began, only 2.4 percent of 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States have been Christian. We can do better than saving 53 Christians (in five years) being subjected to genocide by a group of radical Muslim terrorists.

In addition, I have heard various pundits try to compare Muslim to Irish and Italian immigration of the last century (and others like post-WWII Jews and post-Vietnam War Vietnamese).

Let me point out some differences. First, Islam is not just a religion and it is not a nationality; rather it is also an ideology that demands (at least by some of its followers) world domination with the institution of sharia law. To a large extent, Muslims don’t accept our culture; many, in fact, hate our culture and seek to replace it with their own warped form of justice.

Second, the Irish and the Italians may have settled into nationality specific ghettos, but their goal, as satisfied by the second and following generations, was always to assimilate, become educated and succeed within the American culture.

Third, there was no Great Society with safety nets for Irish and Italian immigrants. They couldn’t sit on their butts and collect free housing, food stamps, child support, health care, etc. They were motivated to work at menial jobs to support their families, hoping to give their children a chance for a better life. The millions of Muslims who have immigrated to Europe are quite content to live in sequestered enclaves, collect the benefits from the socialist governments and quietly grow their numbers until they become a majority that can take over the governments as legal voters and extend their covert sharia-compliant communities into the law of the land.

Just as the Democrats want millions of Latinos to become voters by entering the United States illegally across our southern border and be given citizenship despite their illegal status, the Muslim populations of Europe are poised to legally supplant the cultures into which they refuse to assimilate. We are nowhere near the percentage of Muslims (U.S. estimate as of January 2016 is 3.3 million or roughly 1 percent) as European countries (Germany 6 percent; France 7.5 percent). However, with their lack of desire to assimilate, learn the language and accept our culture, the numbers of Muslim immigrants need to be watched carefully and controlled or our grandchildren will be wearing burqas and thobes!

There is a rational explanation for Israel not allowing the Palestinians the right of mass return to Israel. They would soon outnumber the Jews and there would no longer be a Jewish state — in fact, Jews would then likely be forced to leave their homeland (unlike the acceptance they give to Arabs living in a Jewish controlled Israel) or convert to Islam (or worse) under sharia law.

Europe better wise up ... fast. And so should the Obama administration. We don’t need to risk bringing more terrorists into this country. And we need to demand assimilation from all those refugees who come here. They needn’t abandon their own culture ... just accept ours, speak English and obey our laws, including our border.

Myerowitz is a resident of Columbia Falls.