With days left before the March 17 deadline, the time is short to stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters. Secretary of State John Kerry and the U.S. State Department need to hear from you!
Urge the State Department to give the classification of “victims of genocide” to Middle East Christians and other religious minorities who are being brutalized by ISIS. (As defined by the United Nations, genocide is the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”)
Call the U.S. State Department at: 1-202-647-9572 or 1-202-647-6575.
You can also email using this link.
In addition,sign this petition from stopthechristiangenocide.org.
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The church bells that rang faithfully in Mosul for nearly 2,000 years are silent. In Iraq, Christianity could be wiped out within five years, according to a study from the international group Aid to the Church in Need. A once thriving population of 1.5 million Christians has been decimated to the point where fewer than 250,000 Iraqi Christians remain. In Syria, ISIS has advanced upon towns such as Sadad, which is heavily populated with Aramaic-speaking Christians, decimating the Christian population. We are witnessing the attempt to exterminate Christianity in the region where it has existed since the times of the apostles.
In its wake, ISIS leaves a trail of persecution, torture, and death – specifically targeting Christians and other religious minorities. Thousands of Christians have been executed. Countless women and young girls have been raped and forced into sexual slavery. There are numerous accounts of Middle East Christians being crucified, beheaded, burned alive, forced to watch as their children are tortured and killed in front of them. One Christian woman, now a refugee in Kurdistan, told that when she refused the demand that she convert to Islam, ISIS militants grabbed her baby boy, hurling him to the ground, killing him. Her husband was also captured by ISIS. In another gruesome account, a Christian woman tells of her husband who was crucified upon the door of their home. And who can forget the image of 21 Coptic Christians dressed in orange jumpsuits who were lined up on the beach in Libya and beheaded. These horrific accounts are not isolated events, but represent a bloody tide flooding the Middle East.
In addition to Christians facing annihilation, other religious minority groups such as the Iraqi Yazidi face similar persecution by ISIS.
However, one difference between Middle East Christians and Yazidis is that, as reported by numerous sources including Michael Isikoff of Newsweek magazine, President Obama will be designating the Yazidi as “victims of genocide,” yet he is refusing to give Middle East Christians the same status.
Which begs the question, why would the Obama administration draw a distinction between Yazidis being killed for their faith and Christians killed for theirs? And why is it so important that the Middle East Christian minority population receive the official designation of “victims of genocide”?
As Nina Shea writes for National Review: “A genocide designation would have significant policy implications for American efforts to restore property and lands taken from the minority groups and for offers of aid, asylum, and other protections to such victims.”
In other words, if the United States designates a group as being “victims of genocide” it commits our government to the protection and defense of that group.
As Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez has stated:
We cannot imagine the reality, but it is true — the Christian presence may one day be extinguished in the lands where the light of faith first burned. And it is unimaginable and unconscionable that our government — along with most of the governments of the Western world — has remained silent while this martyrdom goes on.
The political designation of “genocide” has implications. First it is telling the truth. What is happening to Christians in the Middle East is a crime against humanity that cries out to God.
More than that, a genocide designation gives the international community a moral claim to stop the violence and punish those responsible. It also gives a special status to Christians fleeing the persecution — a right to be treated as refugees, and to reclaim their homes and properties once the violence is ended.
And so it is rather telling that President Obama is reportedly planning to extend that designation and status to Yazidis – but not Middle East Christians – even though both of these religious minorities have faced extermination at the hands of ISIS. As Nina Shea suggests, this reflects a familiar pattern within the Obama administration of a bias that views Christians — even non-Western Christians such as those in Iraq and Syria — never as victims but always as Inquisition-style oppressors.
And when some conservatives suggested that if the United States accepts refugees from Syria, it should be Syrian Christians, President Obama called such vetting “shameful” and discriminatory. Yet it is the Obama administration that is discriminating against persecuted Christians. As Family Research Council reports, since the Paris terrorist attack in November, America has admitted 651 Syrian refugees. Of those 651 refugees – three are Christians – less than one half of one percent. In contrast, the Christian population in Syria as of 2011 was 10 percent. Of the remaining 648 refugees, 647 are Muslim.
In response to the Obama administration ignoring the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, Congress mandated that the State Department determine if “persecution . . . of Christians and people of other religions in the Middle East by violent Islamic extremists . . . constitutes genocide.” The State Department under Secretary John Kerry is supposed to announce by March 17 whether or not they will give that protective status to Middle East Christians.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Nebraska), co-chair of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, stated: “Christianity in the Middle East is shattered. The ancient faith tradition lies beaten, broken, and dying. Yet Christians in Iraq and Syria are hanging on in the face of the Islamic State’s barbarous onslaught. This is genocide. The international community must confront the scandalous silence about their plight. …”
As the Obama administration remains silent, there are those within the international community who are beginning to call this slaughter of Christians what it is – genocide. Last month the European Parliament – in a nearly unanimous vote, including support from socialist members – passed a resolution declaring that ISIS “is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis” and “other religious and ethnic minorities.”
With days left before the March 17 deadline, the time is short to stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters. Secretary of State John Kerry and the U.S. State Department need to hear from you!
Urge the State Department to give the classification of “victims of genocide” to Middle East Christians and other religious minorities who are being brutalized by ISIS. As defined by the United Nations, genocide is the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Call the U.S. State Department at: 1-202-647-9572 or 1-202-647-6575.
You can also email using this link.
In addition,sign this petition from stopthechristiangenocide.org.
And most importantly, pray as if your very own brothers and sisters were being tortured – for indeed, they are.
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