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A Syrian Refugee Couple Named Their Baby After Justin Trudeau & He Got To Meet Him

While Donald Trump has banned travel to the US from several Muslim countries, Justin Trudeau has welcomed over 40,000 Syrian refugees to Canada, and around 1,000 settled in the Alberta city of Calgary.
Two of Calgary's Syrian refugees, Muhammad and Afraa Bilan, are so grateful for Trudeau's open-door policy that they've named their son after him. And in an adorable twist of fate, Justin Trudeau and Justin Trudeau Adam Bilan got to meet at the Calgary Stampede rodeo this weekend, the BBC reports. Photos show Trudeau greeting the family and holding the sleeping two-month-old.
Muhammad and Afraa, who are originally from Damascus, fled to Canada from Lebanon in February 2016. Their two older children, four-year-old Naya and three-year-old Nael, came with them. Trudeau wasn't able to meet them in the airport, which he did with the first military plane transporting Syrian refugees to Canada, but it looks like he's made up for lost time.
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"My husband says 'How about if we name the boy Justin-Trudeau, like him,'" his mum recounted to CBC after the boy was born in May. "I was a little bit shocked...when he says that, I smile a little bit, a small smile, then I [say], 'Yes, there is no problem, it will be like a small thank you for Justin Trudeau.' ... In Syria, we name the boys like the parents, like my father's name or my husband's father's name, but now it's by appreciation for Justin Trudeau, we name him like this."
Several other Syrian refugees have named their kids Justin as a token of appreciation for Trudeau. "It's true the name Justin is Western and we are Eastern and Arabs but out of my admiration of Trudeau, I had no problem to name my son Justin — because I like this person," Ahmed Doso, one such parent, told CBC. "For me, he is wonderful and compassionate. I hope all leaders, whether Easterners or Westerners, would be like him."
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