Obama rips GOP for shutting door to Syrians

WASHINGTON — President Obama responded angrily Monday to opponents of admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S., taking aim at some GOP presidential candidates for saying only Christian refugees should have asylum.

[...] at least 23 governors, mostly Republicans, including Texas’ Greg Abbott and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, said they would not allow Syrian refugees into their states in light of reports that at least one of the suicide bombers in Paris had slipped into Europe from Syria as a refugee.

Obama stood by U.S. plans to admit refugees fleeing the civil war and the insurgents known as the Islamic State in Syria.

“When I hear folks say that maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who is fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful,” Obama said at a news conference in Turkey where he was attending the G-20 summit.

Republican candidates Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush both said over the weekend that Christian refugees would not pose a threat to the U.S. Although he did not cite him by name, Obama appeared to single out Cruz, whose father fled Cuba.