Invite a Refugee to Dinner ... Or Not.

Invite a refugee to dinner:

Or not: "Liberal Teacher Takes In Muslim Refugee, His Colleague Finds What’s Left Of Him"--Mad World News. From the article:

A leftist professor decided to put into practice his own liberal “open doors” policy, feeding and housing a poor Muslim refugee in his own home. However, when his colleague showed up to find out why he wasn’t at work, he found a stomach-churning trail that’s enough for anyone to abandon their progressive “multicultural” beliefs. 

A high school math teacher from Celle, a city near Hanover, Germany, foolishly bought into the propaganda that Muslim asylum seekers can be won over with Western hospitality and tolerance. Mehdi Hushmand was not only popular with his students, but he had become an active volunteer in the refugee movement. 

Mehdi, a 55-year-old migrant himself from Iran, sympathized with the flood of Muslim asylum seekers flocking across the borders. He began bringing food, aid, and supplies to refugee centers, but he still felt he wasn’t doing enough. So, he made friends with the male refugees, even letting a few of them stay with him in his house. 

Celle Heute reports that when Mehdi didn’t show up for work, one of his co-workers went to check on him. After searching the home in February, he discovered what looked like a trail of blood leading to the basement. It was there that the colleague found Mehdi butchered and lying dead in a pool of his own blood. 

Murdered by the very migrant for whom he cared, Mehdi’s tolerance for the 58-year-old Afghan refugee came “full swing” when police say they got into an “argument,” according to Bild. Upset that Mehdi, the man who gave him everything, simply disagreed with him, the unidentified asylum seeker took a rock and a large metal instrument and bashed the teacher’s head to a bloody pulp. He then dragged the mutilated body down to the basement in an attempt to cover up his gruesome crime.

Let me first fend off some potential critical comments by stating that I'm aware that the feel-good video came from my own church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). I'm also aware that what happened to the teacher, Mehdi, is an unusual outcome.

But I also understand that charity and missionary outreach do not require you to abandon your common sense. The person or persons you invite to your home will know where you live, see the property you have, know who lives there and what age, and so on.

They come from a different culture that may have very different outlooks as to honor (and what constitutes violation of honor), how to respond to perceived slights, ideas of proper/improper conduct and hygiene, different expectations as to gender or familial roles, and so on. What, to you, may be nothing more than a harmless difference of opinion might be a significant insult to their honor or otherwise inappropriate in their culture. Small talk between genders (such as a woman conversing with a man, or vise versa--especially if a man is talking to another man's spouse) may be discouraged or inappropriate. What are common courtesies in the West may be misconstrued. (For instance, when I was in Japan in the late 1980's, I was told by natives there that a man did not hold a door open for a woman unless there was a romantic relationship between the two).  And because of political correctness and multiculturalism, and its attendant contempt of Western Civilization, you cannot be sure that your refugee guests will respect your culture.

You likely will know little or nothing about their background. If they are here illegally, you are already dealing with someone that has violated the laws of the United States, and must consider whether there are other laws that may not matter to them.

Because of your overtures toward them, they may want to drag you into their problems as well, asking for financial assistance, assistance with immigration issues, sponsoring other friends or family members that want to come to the U.S. (or whatever country in which you live), wanting you to take sides in family disputes, and so on.

In short, if you want to invite a refugee to dinner, do not disengage your brain and admit a total stranger into your home. Find out about them, and try to build at least some bit of a relationship with them first. Finally, be careful of being sucked into issues and problems that do not concern you.