{"id":12745,"date":"2015-12-02T17:11:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T22:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12745"},"modified":"2015-12-02T17:11:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T22:11:19","slug":"dont-let-facts-get-in-the-way-of-a-good-argument-says-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/dont-let-facts-get-in-the-way-of-a-good-argument-says-reader\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t let facts get in the way of a good argument, says reader"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was disappointed to read Shelley Wister\u2019s open letter to Leona Alleslev last week criticizing the government for their plan to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees \u201cin light of the Paris attacks.\u201d
\nMs. Wister offers a number of \u201cfacts\u201d to back up the criticism but doesn\u2019t let \u201cfacts\u201d get in the way of a good argument.
\nFirst, she says it\u2019s a \u201cfact\u201d that there\u2019s a \u201ccounterfeiting industry operating in Europe and the Middle East\u201d popping out Syrian passports, IDs, etc. This is something she says should be \u201cdisturbing to any reasoning person.\u201d What is disturbing to this reasoned person is the lack of facts to back up this alleged \u201cfact\u201d when just one Syrian passport was found after the shootings.
\n\u201cEven if a handful of these extremists enter our country, we will be looking at acts of terrorism against our population.\u201d Once again, where are the facts to back this up? You just need to look at last week\u2019s shooting at a Planned Parenthood in the U.S. and a growing list of home-grown American terrorist attacks to see the holes in Wister\u2019s argument.
\nShe makes blanket \u2013 and untrue \u2013 statements that Syria\u2019s neighbours haven\u2019t taken in one refugee, and then turns up the fear.
\n\u201cMake no mistake: we are up against a religious political fervour that wants to destroy our way of life and whose adherents celebrate every life they take.\u201d Probably true. \u201cEvery Islamist who dies while doing so is considered a martyr.\u201d Okay.
\n\u201cAs our representative in Parliament, please examine the crisis in Europe with the influx of those who believe in Sharia Law and a caliphate. This ideology can\u2019t exist with our rights and freedoms in a liberal democracy.\u201d
\nSure, Sharia Law can\u2019t exist with our rights and freedoms in a liberal democracy, no one can dispute that, but Shelley, I don\u2019t think a \u201ccaliphate\u201d means what you think it means. If you are referring to ISIS, spell it out. That is just one self-proclaimed caliphate and, let\u2019s be real, those who believe in it are happy to stay put.<\/p>\n

H. Grimset
\nAurora <\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was disappointed to read Shelley Wister\u2019s open letter to Leona Alleslev last week criticizing the government for their plan to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees \u201cin light of the Paris attacks.\u201d Ms. Wister offers a number of \u201cfacts\u201d to back up the criticism but doesn\u2019t let \u201cfacts\u201d get in the way of a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3jz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 01:03:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}