Sunday 4 September 2016

Why doesn't Saudi Arabia take in more refugees?

Why don't your esteemed Op-Ed columnists hold Saudi Arabia's collective feet to the fire over their failure to take in refugees? Most Syrian refugees are Sunni, the same as most Saudis.
I understand Saudis are concerned that some of them may be members of ISIS. To which one might reasonably respond: "gee, d'ya think?" That's one of the legitimate concerns of Europeans who are currently doing the heavy lifting on refugees, though critics who bring up such concerns are often labelled "Islamophobes".
Saudis Arabia has permanent camps ready for the millions of Haj tourists to Mecca each year. They are perfect for short-term Muslim refugees accommodation
Yet we rarely see any pressure on this so-called "ally" of the west.
At the very least it would be worth seeing Saudi reaction to demands to accept refugees. I suspect it would be just more duplicity and hypocrisy from this most tawdry of "allies".
Peter F
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