Comments like Fiore’s just help ISIS recruit

By Jeff Schauer, Las Vegas

Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 | 2 a.m.

I read with horror Assemblywoman Michele Fiore’s equating of Syrian refugees with terrorists, and her desire to murder them. She is part of an increasingly sinister wing of the Republican Party that seeks to scapegoat those fleeing a war partly of our own country’s making. Europeans are effectively picking up the tab for our imperial foreign policy by accepting refugees in enormous numbers.

Such irresponsible remarks coming from public figures suggest, in our already-violence-plagued society, that increased, indiscriminate and vigilante violence are legitimate and represent the answer to our ills. The Republican primary campaign has seen Donald Trump and others call for special IDs for Muslims citizens, the exclusion of refugees or migrants on the basis of their religion, the murder of terrorists’ families and the reintroduction of torture.

Evidence suggests this demonization of Muslim citizens is the surest way to win recruits for ISIS. Far more important, attacks on our citizenry and on vulnerable people fleeing conflict fly in the face of traditions of religious liberty, legal and moral humanitarian obligations, and basic principles of justice.

Fiore’s comments are in a league of their own for their savagery, their ignorance, their disdain for the law, their bigotry and the animosity they are designed to stoke in our society. But they represent a rising and terrifying tide of intolerance that should be answered with words and actions reaffirming the humanity of those in need and the importance of thoughtful, informed and humanistic debate.