It’s not just ISIS that is the problem. Iran goes out of its way to persecute its Bahai minority. Many nations persecute Ahmadis as heretics. In many countries, including Egypt, with its large Coptic Christian population, Christians and other minorities feel newly insecure. And the most common targets of persecution in Muslim countries are Muslims themselves, in part because of the de facto civil war between Shiite and Sunni factions. Some of the greatest venom in the Middle East is from Sunni groups disparaging Shiites.

While the villains are often Muslims, so too are the heroes. When Iran charged a Christian pastor with apostasy, it was a brave Muslim lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who defended him and won his acquittal — but Iran then sentenced Dadkhah to prison on vague political charges for nine years. He is a model of leadership in speaking out against the religious persecution of people of another faith.

Republicans are right to demand that Obama speak up more forcefully against religious persecution, and it’s sad that the United States is quiet when our allies like Saudi Arabia model religious intolerance. But Republicans go off the rails when they insist (as Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush have) that Christians be favored in the refugee process.

Refugee status should go to the most vulnerable, whatever their faith — and in many cases in Syria that is not Christians, who have often been protected by the Assad regime or have moved to Christian enclaves in Lebanon. The Islamic State has been savage to Christians, but fortunately, relatively few Syrian Christians live in areas seized by the Islamic State.

Christian groups like World Relief have been dismissive of Republican claims that the Obama administration discriminates against Christians in the refugee process. Over all, 44 percent of refugees who resettled in the United States since 2003 have been Christians; a full 30 percent of Iraqi refugees accepted by the United States have been Christians, Christianity Today noted. And the Republican-led effort to block Syrian refugees means that we would keep out desperate Syrian Christians.

“Most Syrian church leaders insist that Christians should not be given special treatment,” notes Miles Windsor of Middle East Concern, an organization supporting persecuted Christians. “Assigning refugee status or offering asylum must be on the basis of vulnerability and need. To do otherwise not only violates international refugee and humanitarian law, but also the teachings of Christ.”