On The Horns of A Dilemma

International charities like Medecines sans Frontieres and Oxfam, as well as the United Nations are puzzled and distressed over the lack of charitable response to their campaigns for fund-raising to benefit Syrian refugees. The campaigns have been well-advertised through a multitude of media, so it isn't as though the public is not aware that these efforts are on-going, and given the presence of Syrian conflict dominating the news, no one is unaware of the depth of the problem.

But the public response is simply not there. Partially, perhaps, because of public fatigue with the seemingly never-ending chaos and destruction and sheer atrocious blood-letting in the Arab and Muslim Middle East. Driven now mostly by sectarian divisions between the two main strands of Islam, the two factions -- Shia and Sunni - are committing themselves to ongoing war against one another. It is a phenomena the world saw initiated after the invasion of Iraq.

But of course it is not just sectarian animosity exhibiting a depth of hatred so vile and deadly that thousands die when Muslims attack one another, but sectarian divide aside, there is the reality of a vast network of the ummah, the global Muslim base, and a minority among them of people who have dedicated themselves to the viral wretchedness of violent jihad. Terrorists unleash their own hatred of anything not directed through fundamentalist Islamism, to destroy those who are insufficiently Muslim, in their estimation.

Islam is at war with itself, as well as with the West -- other cultures, religions, politics, social ethics -- and while it prosecutes its war it is devouring itself in a wide-ranging series of destructive paroxysms. The revolutionary conflict in Syria is just one of these cataclysmic events. The United Nations now estimates that over 90,000 Syrians and likely more, have died in the two years of conflict. The Syrian rebels, representing the Sunni faction, are embittered against the Syrian regime representing the minority Shia population in the country.

They see themselves and the majority citizens of Syria they represent as being slaughtered mercilessly by the regime's military and paramilitaries. Leading to their own atrocities. Presumably, but not entirely, launched by the seasoned imported terrorists who have joined the ranks of the rebels. Where Syrian rebels raised black flags over the village of Hatla, an enclave of Shia villagers, killing militiamen and civilians alike.

A major coalition of Canadian aid organizations targeting to raise millions to aid Syrian refugees has managed to raise a paltry $306,000. The coalition representing Care Canada, Save the Children, Oxfam Canada and other charities is stunned at the lack of response to their appeal for public funding to enable them to pursue their charitable agendas directed toward the relief of Syrian refugees.

The United Nations identifies seven million Syrians in dire need of humanitarian assistance; that represents about a third of the Syrian population. About six million Syrians are now homeless, their homes destroyed or they've been driven from their ancestral areas. Of that number roughly 1.6-million have found temporary haven in refugee camps mostly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, countries themselves struggling to cope with an influx of people in need.

Oxfam America has been able to meet $140,000 of its $53-million goal for Syrian relief. The United Nations has issued an aid appeal for $5-billion to meet the most basic needs of the refugee population, and to enable them to give aid to Lebanon and Jordan, struggling with their inadequate refugee infrastructure. The funding is simply not forthcoming. Potential donors are not responding.

And because of the uncertainty of who will enter countries willing to take the chance and accept refugees, with the thought that some among them will have been irremediably tainted by jihadism and hatred for other sects, the international community is not stepping forward prepared to generously take in as many Syrians as wish to leave their countries of birth.

Syria has been devastated, its people demoralized and fearful of the future. A certain proportion of the population has been instrumental in bringing their country to this state. A much larger number of Syrians are helpless pawns in a war of pure, unadulterated, lunacy of hatred and destruction.