Filmmaker Michael Moore Opens Home to Syrians

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Michigan filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore has hurled himself into the debate over Syrian refugees, blasting Gov. Rick Snyder for backtracking on a previously welcoming position before offering his Traverse City apartment to refugees seeking asylum from ISIS extremists.

In the simmering letter, the “Where to Invade Next” filmmaker chastised Snyder for “disgraceful” “unconstitutional,” and “heartless and un-Christian actions.” Days later, he launched a formal “My Home Is Open” campaign in which he urged like-minded citizens to provide temporary housing to refugees. In the letter to Snyder, he wrote:

“What you’ve done is anti-American. This is not who we are supposed to be. We are, for better and for worse, a nation of descendants of three groups: slaves from Africa who were brought here in chains and then forced to provide trillions of dollars of free labor to build this country; native peoples who were mostly exterminated by white Christians through acts of mass genocide; and immigrants from EVERYWHERE around the globe. In Michigan we are fortunate to count amongst us tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim Americans.”

By Tuesday evening, some 1,630 individuals had indicated they would welcome Syrian refugees in defiance of policies announced by Snyder, who started a stampede of more than two dozen governors who want to close their states’ doors to Syrian refugees after the Paris terror attacks.

The governors, all but one of them a Republican, argued the safety of Americans is at risk after one of the men linked to the Paris terror attacks posed as a refugee with a Syrian passport.

“I’m asking anyone who can, anyone who has spare rooms in their homes or an empty apartment, cottage, or whatever, to make it available for Syrian and Iraqi refugees for between six months and a year while they’re being settled in the U.S,” Moore wrote on the campaign page, adding:

“If you can do this, would you please sign up on the #MyHomeIsOpen registry. Your name and contact info will be kept private and will only be shared with the appropriate refugee agencies sanctioned and overseen by the Obama administration and its participating NGOs. They will contact you when they have refugees that they’ve vetted and need to be placed in homes.”

Moore says his 700-square-foot apartment is available, rent-free, for six months to a year until a Syrian family can settle in and assimilate to life in the United States. The apartment Moore offered is not his primary residence.

“My family came here from Ireland in the 1800s. I know what it was like for them. There was bigotry and harassment — but there were also those who held out a helping hand,” he wrote. “That I would have the chance to do the same thing for a new family of immigrants 150 years later is an honor.”

Moore said welcoming the Syrian refugees should be the “ ‘American way’ from now on.”

“No more war, or interfering in other people’s lives, no more turning our backs on the messes that we’ve created,” he wrote.

» Photo by Flickr user shankbone

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• Michigan Governor Pauses Syrian Refugee Plan
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• FBI Probes Threats in Dearborn After Paris Attacks