The United States is going to welcome 7,000 Muslims from Russia to Pennsylvania, giving them free housing and life-long pensions: US Offers Citizenship To 7000 Ahiska Muslims.

KRASNODAR, Russia, July 24, (IslamOnline.net) - The United States has agreed to grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23.

The first 11-strong batch of the Ahiska Muslims, living in the Russian province of Krasnodar, left for Geneva on Thursday, July 22, before flying to Philadelphia, reported Novie Izvestia. It added that the Muslims would be housed near the grand mosque in Philadelphia. …

An official in Krasnodar administration had told Interfax on Tuesday, July 20, that of the 11,999 Ahiska Muslims living in the region, 4,943 have received Russian citizenship and 744 have embarked on Russian naturalization procedures. He added that more than 5,000 others have expressed a desire to emigrate to the United States.

Earlier, Chingiz Neiman-zade, chairman of Vatan, a Meskheti Turks association based in Georgia, said the United States had offered to accept the Ahiska Muslims living in Krasnodar as immigrants. “On February 16, the International Migration Organization began an information program in Krasnodar to explain the terms for the resettlement of the Ahiska Muslims in the U.S.,” he told Chicago Tribune on Thursday, July 22.

“The immigrants will be provided with housing and furniture, they will be helped to learn the English language and to complete formalities needed for residence in the US, which is especially important, and have been promised life-long welfare allowances for pensioners and the disabled.”

Via Dhimmi Watch, where Robert Spencer asks:

What pains were taken to make sure that these people do not hold to radical Islamic views? What is the extent of Wahhabi and/or Deobandi and/or Shi’te Iranian presence in Krasnodar? What efforts have been made to make sure that none of these 7,000 have any attachment to Sharia or violent jihad?

I feel reasonably sure that no one in our government will ask these questions. It just wouldn’t be sensitive.

UPDATE at 7/28/04 10:10:10 pm:

Radio Free Europe has more on this story—and it looks as if Islam Online was exaggerating some details and inventing others (I know, the shock is profound). Their accommodations are being provided by the Lutheran Church, not by the federal government, and their citizenship is not guaranteed as Islam Online claimed: RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY.

Prague, 28 July 2004 — For the third time in 60 years, Russia’s stateless Meskhetian community is setting off into exile.

Last week, 84 Meskhetians bid farewell to Russia’s southern Krasnodar region and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under a U.S. resettlement program. These few families are the first of a 9,000- to 10,000-strong contingent expected to emigrate to the United States within the next few months.

Arrangements for their initial accommodation are being made by the Lutheran Children and Family Services, a private voluntary agency that is providing them with resettlement services, such as housing, food, clothing, and other basic necessities.