Christian Refugee Fled Jihadists in Iraq — Then Was Killed by Jihadists in France

“Granting asylum to the persecuted is legitimate,” said a French politician recently. But “our uncontrolled immigration policy now leads us to welcome their executioners [too].”

Unfortunately for a man named Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old Assyrian Christian, he became a case in point. He and his family managed to escape Islamic State jihadist terror in Iraq in 2014, finding refuge in France.

Or so they thought.

Because the wheelchair-bound Sarnaya didn’t escape jihadist terror in his new home.

Tragically, too, Sarnaya is only one of many who’ve learned, painfully, that their Western safe havens are anything but. Moreover, his story is a cautionary tale not just for Europe, but the United States as well.

The grassroots activist RAIR Foundation reported on Sarnaya’s story shortly after the fact, writing that he was

attacked during a live broadcast on social media in front of his home in Lyon on Wednesday evening, 10 September 2025.

According to RMC-BFM Lyon and Franceinfo, the killing occurred around 10:30 p.m. in the Gorge de Loup neighborhood of Lyon’s 9th arrondissement. Sarnaya, who used a wheelchair, was stabbed in the neck with a bladed weapon — likely a machete — while live-streaming on TikTok. He suffered cardiopulmonary arrest and died despite the rapid response of emergency services.

Three perpetrators, dressed in dark clothing with hoods, fled the scene immediately….

Sarnaya’s sister described her brother as a man of faith: “He did live streams on TikTok to spread the word of God. He had no enemies, no problems with anyone.”

Killing Was Telegraphed

While Sarnaya was murdered two months ago, it was only more recently that suspects were apprehended. As Israel National News informed earlier this month:

Sabri B., an Algerian citizen suspected of the murder and linked to ISIS, turned off his phone right after killing Ashur and left Lyon that night, heading for Italy. … His escape ended ten days later, in a house in Andria, where another Algerian hosted him.

Investigations now describe in detail the threats Ashur had been subjected to, both online and in person.

We know that the killer, Sabri B., had connected to Ashur’s livestream 30 minutes before the crime, without speaking. Ashur’s livestreams were regularly watched by hostile users. A user claiming to be [a] Palestinian Arab living in Lyon often joined the livestreams, insulting and threatening Sarnaya: “I’m coming, get ready.”

Another, claiming to be Tunisian, asked where the Christian influencer lived, saying he would find him eventually: “We’ll kill you.”

In the summer, someone sent him a message reading: “We know where you are, this won’t continue.” It was accompanied by a photo of Ashur near his home….

Inviting the Fox Into the Hen House

That the Sarnaya tragedy and many others result from reckless immigrationist policies should be obvious by now. Yet since it isn’t, at least not to enough voters, patriots still have to state the obvious. As the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) wrote Wednesday:

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s anti-mass-migration opposition party National Rally, pointed out that “[w]hile granting asylum to the persecuted is legitimate, our uncontrolled immigration policy now leads us to welcome their executioners.”

To continually sell harmful mass migration to Western societies, the anti-borders lobby often resorts to emotional blackmail and misleadingly portray[s] mass migration in terms of saving the world’s persecuted.

To anti-borders globalists, the obvious threats resulting from the mass importation of foreign extremists are an “acceptable” level [of] risk worth paying for a one-world “no nations” Utopia.

In other words, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

(Oh, by the way, you, hardworking citizens, are the eggs.)

FAIR continued:

In reality, mass migration serves as an avenue allowing in not only genuine refugees but also violent and hateful foreign extremists, including dangerous Jihadists, capable and willing to brutally murder people like Ashur Sarnaya.

Other Examples

Ergo, Sarnaya’s company in victimhood. FAIR presented a few more examples, too:

One young Yazidi woman — one of many who had been forced into sexual slavery by ISIS — discovered this when she was approached by her former ISIS captor (who had also registered as a refugee) on the street in Germany threatening her that he knew where she lived. Fearful for her life, she returned to Iraq.

The Somali-born … Islam critic, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is also well aware of the danger. She requires round-the-clock security due to death threats by Islamist radicals. They have wanted her dead ever since she wrote the script for Theo van Gogh’s short film Submission in 2004, which resulted in the brutal killing of van Gogh by Islamist Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-born son of Moroccan immigrants (the letter pinned to van Gogh’s body by a dagger was addressed to Hirsi Ali).

All of this, however, was predictable — and predicted. Just consider the now-decade-old warnings of Dr. Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian Palestinian academic currently living as an asylee in Britain. In a 2015 Glazov Gang interview, Zahran, a self-professed practicing Muslim himself, inveighed against that time’s mass Muslim migration into Europe. Everything he said was newsworthy (and roundly ignored by the news), but one line is especially apropos here. To wit:

I can authoritively [sic] confirm — I have photos, I have images, I have pictures, I have names of terrorists who actually are already in Europe posting their photos in Europe on Facebook.

Simply put, Zahran insisted that the Muslim “refugees” must be kept out of Europe. And he called that particular wave migration “the soft Islamic conquest of the West.”

Now, had we heeded Zahran’s warnings, is it possible that Sarnaya — and many other innocent victims — would be alive today?

What Is Immigration’s Purpose, Anyway?

A deeper question, however, is: Why must such warnings even be issued? Why is immigration considered a given in the West (when it isn’t beyond it)?

Answer: We’ve fallen victim to immigrationism. That is the doctrine that immigration is always good, is always necessary, must never be questioned, and must be the one constant in an ever-changing universe of policy.

Just consider the answers offered in immigration’s defense. “Diversity is our strength!” “Immigration is the lifeblood of America!”

“How” is never explained.

“Immigrants built the U.S.!”

Even if this were true, though, so what? People I don’t know built my car. That doesn’t mean I must ever and always invite other people I don’t know to take it for a spin.

Moreover, (im)migrants can not only help build a nation, but also help tear one down. So Before accepting any immigration regime, we should ask:

• Are the given people assimilable? Or will they become a nation within our nation? Will they destabilize our country?
• As to this, what beliefs do they hold? Do these conflict with Americanism?
• And with a population of already 348,000,000 — and one only growing because of (im)migration — do we really need more people?

The good news is that, finally, even some mainstream figures are questioning immigration and calling for a moratorium on it. And now there’s news that Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) will introduce a bill that would freeze all immigration.

No, that bill won’t likely pass in the current Congress. But starting to talk about a better idea is the first step toward combating an entrenched bad one.

For those interested, the very interesting and compelling interview with Mudar Zahran is below.