During the terrorist attack on a hotel in Mali last Friday, there were reports that hostages who could recite the Muslim profession of faith were set free; those who could not were killed. That the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban or other fanatical Islamist sects measure the worth of a human life according to his or her religious belief is barbaric. Yet the impulse among American politicians like Jeb Bush and Senator Ted Cruz and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, to offer refuge only to Christians fleeing war is as appalling.

For Americans, it is painful even to have to rebut such sentiments. Surely it should be enough to say, as President Obama did, “That’s not who we are.” It should not be necessary to recall the basics of American history, that many of the first European settlers of North America came to escape an enforced uniformity of religion. To specify that “Christian” is the acceptable identity for a refugee to enter America is not only a mockery of American history, but also a painful echo of chapters in that history when Americans denied refuge or rights to groups they perceived as “other” — whether Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, or Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps, or African-Americans long denied equal rights. Surely Republican candidates know this.

Yes, the United States and Europe must intercept jihadists on their borders. But how could that mean blocking entry to all Muslims who have been the primary target of Islamic State savagery, and who have fled their homelands by the millions to escape carnage? All the Paris attackers so far identified were born in France or Belgium, and there is no evidence that a Syrian passport found at the attack site belonged to a terrorist.

The arguments could go on and on, and thankfully many religious leaders and others have forcefully rejected the hysterical demagogy of the Republican presidential candidates and European nationalists. If these politicians were acting out of a real, if misguided, concern for security, they might be moved by facts or appeals to humanity. But as yet, there is no sign that they will be.