Balancing Brotherhood & Security: Reshaping Immigration Policy in Muslim-Majority Countries

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from our book The Firmest Handle: Converts to Islam Who Became Martyrs in the chapter about Martyr Jerome Kamel Courcelle, a half-Tunisian, half-French martyr who came to Iran and fought in the Sacred Defense War in defense of Islam and Iran. Iran’s current immigration law was written during the time of the first Pahlavi monarch and has not been updated since the Islamic Revolution to reflect Islamic values of brotherhood while also balancing national security and protecting the demographic majority of Iranians (as is their right as the native peoples) via quotas and limits. The liberal immigration policies of Europe and America are an obvious failure (by design) and should not be copied, and the current situation in Syria whereby headchopping terrorists will be given full Syrian citizenship by the ISIS-in-suits leader Al-Jolani is also not something that should be copied (it is an “Islamic” version of Zionism). However, the current status quo cannot remain, not in Iran nor any other Muslim-majority country. They can retain national security filters (to prevent spies and infiltrators) and establish limits and quotas to make sure the native peoples remain as the vast majority demographic, while still extending a hand of brotherhood to those who wish to escape the rainbow flag tyranny of the West voluntarily, or those involuntarily expelled from the west due to the increasingly draconian means of enforcing so-called “antisemitism” laws. If Shaheed Courcelle was not martyred and was to remain alive in Iran today, he would be treated according to this two-tiered system in which foreigners are burdened with all kinds of irrational obstacles to live a basic, normal life as anyone else. Beyond that, if Imam Mahdi (aj) himself were to come to Iran today, he would certainly not have the passport or nationality of any country – would his holy personage be put through the same hardships and needless obstacles as any other foreign national? All countries should have immigration restrictions; there should not be a free-for-all. However, it is not impossible to balance these legitimate issues with the spirit of Islamic brotherhood. After all, by comparison, how did the Prophet (S) treat Salman, the forefather of Persian Shi’as himself? This humble policy paper certainly has its blind spots and shortcomings, but it is necessary to get the conversation started. From whatever positive and beneficial general principles exist in this treatise, experts can then improve, enhance, refine, and then implement into the fine print and practical implementation.

The writing of this piece started from before the martyrdom of Sayyed Ibrahim Raisi (ra). We know that he was a man who listened to the people and, where merit was found, he would implement the positive and sensible suggestions of the people as best as he could. We plea with the martyred souls of Sayyed Raisi and Hussain Amir-Abdollahian to help us convey this important issue to the relevant authorities within the Islamic Republic of Iran and the rest of the Muslim world. More and more people are seeking to flee the west, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and a structure needs to be in place to vet them for national security purposes (to weed out spies) and limit the amount of entries (to maintain demographics of the native peoples – minus emergency cases like fleeing imminent physical threats and assassinations), and then afterwards welcoming those who pass national security tests and quota limits as brothers and equals under the basic civic law. Of course, those who are not taxpayers cannot benefit from the same financial benefits that the nationals benefit from, but the basics of life should be equally available, and there are many real life anecdotes which demonstrate the current disparities and hardships that foreigners face in the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the system left in place by the corrupted Pahlavi dynasty that have not been updated to this day.