Assad made the war.”But Assad’s war — and the refugee crisis he and his accomplices deliberately created — didn’t just devastate Syria. From Hungary to Brexit Britain, from Le Pen’s France to Trump’s America, images of desperate Syrian refugees crossing borders seeking safety were used to stoke fear — and the far-right surged in response. The Western far-right movements didn’t simply emerge amid the chaos of Syria. Far-right parties in Europe parroted Kremlin talking points — claiming the “invasion” of refugees would replace Western civilization. Syrian refugees have been slandered twice over: first by their oppressors, then by the governments that claim to uphold freedom.