In an earlier piece I wrote about the refugee crisis, (https://letsexpress.me/2015/09/the-refugee-crisis/), and how Saudi Arabia might be a better overall destination for these Muslim brothers and sisters.
Yesterday then I learned that Saudi Arabia has 100,000 air conditioned tents that can house over 3 million people sitting empty. The tents, which measure 8 meters by 8 meters are located in the city of Mina, spreading across a 20 square km valley, and are only used for 5 days of the year by Hajj pilgrims. Do please have a look at a picture of the place here.
So the Saudis have the space, the accommodation already built and in place and the oil cash as well to solve the problem overnight. ISIS is driving these people from their homes, (or so we are told), and they are brothers and sisters in the faith with the Saudis. But while it refuses to take in any more refugees, Saudi Arabia has offered to build 200 mosques for the 500,000 migrants a year expected to pour into Germany.
The article points out fairly and correctly that, "The tents could provide shelter for almost all of the 4 million Syrian refugees that have been displaced by the country’s civil war, which was partly exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s role in funding and arming jihadist groups." As regards the funding of this ISIS massacre in Syria, a British General has a bit to say also. "General Jonathan Shaw, who retired as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff in 2012, told The Telegraph that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires ISIS terrorists." His views are well worth a read because he traces it all back to where it began and explains the unwitting part the West played in it.
Business Insider has a view also suggesting that maybe the House of Saud is behind the trouble and maybe it isn't. The thinking man though believes that they were behind it until is grew out of control and now ISIS has the capacity to destabilize even Saudi Arabia. The view from some parts of Europe though is that the refugees have the potential in the long run to destabilize the EU.
This knotty problem has no obvious easy answer that I can see.