Refugee Conundrum: Serve ISIS, Serve Assad - or Die

The Paris terror attacks ignited a worldwide debate over Syrian refugees stretching from Europe to America, where some U.S. governors are trying to block them from entering their states.
    
CBN's Operation Blessing is on the ground in the war-torn country and offered CBN News a voice missing from this debate – the voice of those fleeing for their lives.

Bill Horan, the aid organization's president, recently witnessed the refugee crisis first-hand.

"We are hearing stories about ISIS infiltration and all of that and I think that it is good that we are aware of these possible problems," he told CBN News.

Horan stood at the border of Hungary and Croatia where thousands arrived, having crossed nine borders to reach that point.

"You have been on the front-lines now. What are we not hearing? What are we not seeing?" CBN's Efrem Graham asked.

"We are certainly only seeing one side of the story, and the side of the story that I keep noticing that is being left out is the story from the perception of the refugees," Horan replied.

"The vast majority of these folks, at least the ones that we have interacted with, that we have met, that we have talked to while we were over there, they are not terrorists at all," he said.

Operation Blessing's David Darg captured photographs of some of the refugees, some of whom explained the challenges they face in their homeland.

"They said, 'We had three choices,'" Darg told CBN News. "'We could either be conscripted into the Assad regime and fight for Assad, or we have to fight for ISIS, be forced to fight for ISIS – or we can stay here and be killed.'"

"So, when we see the attacks happening in Paris and all this terror happening around the world, we need to understand that that is the very terror these people are running from, not running towards," Darg explained.

There are many young men among those running, and it's no accident. That's a lesson Horan learned while talking to a 27-year-old Syrian Christian whose family pooled their money to send him to Germany.

"He said, 'I went to the meeting. I did not volunteer to leave my home and to come to Germany. I was chosen by the family as the one most likely to make it across nine borders, across a 17-hour ride in a rubber boat from Turkey to Greece,'" Horan said.

"He said, 'I was sea sick for 17 hours and I was sure I was going to die,'" Horan recounted the young man's words. "'We were all praying out loud, praying to the Lord just to get us to the other side.' He said many people drowned on the way."

Horan explained that they're leaving out of desperation. Still, not everyone is able to flee. That's why Operation Blessing isn't just stopping at the border.

"We are actually working inside Syria," Horan told CBN News. "We have got partners that are inside Syria in the north eastern part of Syria, the area that is still safe from ISIS - at least now, because the Kurds are defending that area."

"There are Christian that are there," he said. "Christian Syrians that speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus."