Some refugees are more deserving than others

The vast majority of refugees languish in squalor and anonymity, usually for years and years, before their refugee claims even get a hearing. That’s if they don’t drown in the Mediterranean or the English Channel first, or meet some equally morbid fate.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun wasn’t one of those. Unlike the vast majority, she wasn’t a refugee from one of the many countries set aflame by America’s genocidal wars on Muslim states, nor was she an economic refugee fleeing grinding poverty in one of those “shithole” countries where we’ve been imposing “democracy and capitalism.”

No, Rahaf was from a wealthy country, a close ally of the Nations of Virtue. She was from a well-to-do family. Alas, as many teens do, she had some quibbles with that family. But she also had some  advantages that those refugees swimming with fishes or rotting in camps generally don’t.

First of all, by renouncing Islam, she gained immediate celeb status among a wide swath of Westerners who see no contradiction between their generally progressive politics and their contempt for Islam. I have no doubt that the KSA fully deserves to be shunned for its human rights record, but that’s on the Saudis, not on Islam.

Secondly, the plucky Rahaf wasn’t barricaded in the Thai hotel room by herself. She had the good fortune to be sharing that barricaded room with A-list Australian journalist Sophie McNeill.

Finally, by the middle of last week, Rahaf’s fast-trending story had caught the attention of Canada’s
Foreign Minister. Nobody, but nobody, has a nose for photo-ops and political grand-standing like Chrystia Freeland. Chrystia sensed a PR coup of global proportions was within her grasp, and sure enough, she managed to elbow the would-be Aussie do-gooders out of the way, and by the weekend was proudly posing for a throng of reporters at Toronto airport with this “brave new Canadian.”

Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland trots out her latest PR coup to meet the free world

So what’s been accomplished here? We didn’t “save” Rahaf from anything; she already had safe passage to Australia.

Instead, we’ve further tarnished an already compromised refugee system.

Not that Rahaf needs to worry about the 25 million refugees who don’t have the luxury of wealthy parents and good international connections.

Here she is with a couple of her new A-list pals, getting ready for a nice dinner out in Toronto.

Rahaf al-Qunun with Sophie McNeill and Mona Eltahawy in Toronto