Refugees are entering the city of Knoxville, Tennessee at an historic rate, with over 230 being resettled in the region and another 245 expected to arrive in 2017.
If as many refugees arrive in Knoxville as they are expected in 2017, it will be a 44 percent increase in refugees since 2014, according to the Bridge Refugee Services.
The majority of the refugees entering the Knoxville area are from Iraq, a nation significantly torn apart by Islamic terrorism. Other refugees in Knoxville are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Russia.
Like Georgia and Texas, refugee resettlement by the federal government has been increasing in Tennessee since 2014.
Three years ago, there were only 170 refugees resettled in Knoxville. In 2015, that number slightly increased to 194. If the projections are sustained, there will be at least 476 brought to the region in two years.
In other areas of Tennessee like Murfreesboro, residents have been dealing with what they see as the “Islamization” of their town, due to increasing numbers of Muslim refugees.
In a Washington Post piece last week, reporter Abigail Hauslohner attacked Christians who oppose the building of a mosque in their area.
“What worries and perplexes many Muslims and their friends here is what lies beneath the surface. What impact will Trump have as president when distrust of Muslims already exists,” Hauslohner wrote.
Hauslohner interviewed one “right-wing Southern Baptist,” where the anonymous man said Muslims have the right “to kill you and take your wife as a sex slave.”
Meanwhile, Hauslohner portrayed Muslims living in Tennessee as victims:
There has been a smattering of post-election harassment and insults — at schools, in parking lots, on the road — but nothing to take to the police or put Murfreesboro back in the national headlines.
“Right now, we’re hoping that it’s going to be calm,” said Saleh Sbenaty, an engineering professor at Middle Tennessee State University and one of the founders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. “But we don’t know if it’s the calm before the storm or the calm after the storm.”
Tennessee lawmakers have not backed down on the issue of refugees being resettled in their state without any consent from the State.
In May 2016, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam announced that he would be allowing state lawmakers to sue the federal government for resettling refugees in the region without notifying officials first, as the Tennessean reported.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.