I am astonished that this story has

generated so little comment. Does the U.S.A. actually need 12,000

illiterate African Muslims at this point in time? There are, of course, all

sorts of taboos in play here–the immigration taboo, the Muslim taboo, the

race taboo, so perhaps I should not be astonished. But can’t we at least

talk about this? Presumably Americans, a humane and compassionate people, would like to have some kind of refugee policy: but is this the one we

want? If there has been any large public debate about this, I missed it.