[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 19, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E914-E916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 19, 2013

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I delivered the following remarks at 
a Wilson Center event focused on the future of religious minorities in 
the Middle East.

       I'd like to begin by thanking my former colleague, 
     Congresswoman Jane Harman, and the Wilson Center for hosting 
     this discussion on such a timely issue. I have long been 
     focused on international religious freedom--specifically on 
     the plight of persecuted people of faith wherever they may 
     be.
       Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, `In the end, we will 
     remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our 
     friends.'
       America has always been a friend to the oppressed, the 
     persecuted, the forgotten. But sadly today, that allegiance 
     is in question as religious freedom and human rights abuses 
     around the globe increasingly go unaddressed and unanswered.
       Looking to the Middle East there is often societal and 
     communal violence and repression against religious 
     communities which specifically targets religious minorities.
       Too often the governments of these lands foster an 
     atmosphere of intolerance or in some cases such as Iran, 
     outright criminality as it relates to different faith 
     traditions like the Baha'is.
       Tragically, Since 1979, the Iranian government has killed 
     more than 200 Baha'i leaders and dismissed over 10,000 from 
     government and university jobs. Further, throughout the 
     region, there is impunity surrounding acts of religiously 
     targeted violence, onerous registration requirements for 
     houses of worship, and a general climate of fear which 
     isolates and too often drives out religious minorities.
       These realities have been exasperated by the so-called Arab 
     Spring--a Spring which has devolved into Winter for many of 
     the most vulnerable in these societies--foremost among them 
     the ancient Christian communities.
       The future of religious minorities in the Middle East is of 
     course the focus of our discussion today. I would argue that 
     if the current trajectory holds true, the future of these 
     communities--communities which are woven into the very fabric 
     of the region--is uncertain at best.
       In February I travelled to the Middle East--specifically to 
     Lebanon and Egypt. One of the main purposes of the trip was 
     to spend time with the Syrian Christian community--a 
     community with ancient roots dating back to the 1st century. 
     We read in the Bible about Paul on the road to Damascus.
       According to the latest estimates the brutal civil war, 
     which continues to rage, has taken nearly 93,000 lives.
       With the Syrian crisis entering its third year, the 
     eventual outcome, including how many will perish in or be 
     displaced by the continued violence and who will step into 
     the power vacuum, is far from certain. Moreover, what that 
     will mean for the Christian community in Syria is largely 
     unknown and, unfortunately, rarely addressed by Western 
     media.
       I wanted to hear firsthand from Syrian Christians about 
     their concerns and to put this issue in the larger context of 
     an imperiled Christian community in the broader Middle East, 
     specifically in Egypt and Iraq.
       Coptic Christians and other minorities in Egypt have 
     increasingly been marginalized with the ascendancy of the 
     Muslim Brotherhood. The recently drafted constitution, which 
     made blasphemy a criminal offense, is highly problematic.
       A February 5 Associated Press article reported, 
     `[p]rovisions in the document allow for a far stricter 
     implementation of Islamic Shariah law than in the past, 
     raising opponents' fears that it could bring restrictions on 
     many civil liberties and the rights of women and Christians.'
       Increasingly these fears are being born out. Just last 
     month, a young Christian teacher in Egypt was accused of 
     insulting Islam while teaching a social studies class.
       In a Christian Science Monitor article about this case and 
     the trend more broadly, a local human rights activist 
     reportedly said, `All Coptic teachers are scared here now 
     that any child who fights with them could accuse them of 
     blasphemy and drag them to court.'
       The issues I've just outlined must be viewed not simply as 
     today's news but rather through the lens of history.
       A phrase not often heard outside the majority Muslim world 
     is `First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.' The 
     `Saturday people' are, of course, the Jews.
       Except for Israel, their once vibrant communities in 
     countries throughout the region are now decimated. In 1948 
     there were roughly 150,000 Jews in Iraq; today 4 remain. In 
     Egypt, there were once as many as 80,000 Jews; now roughly 20 
     remain.
       It appears a similar fate may await the ancient Christian 
     community in these same lands.
       Consider this observation by author and adjunct fellow at 
     the Center for Religious Freedom, Lela Gilbert, who recently 
     wrote in the Huffington Post: ``Between 1948 and 1970, 
     between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews were expelled from Egypt--
     their properties and funds confiscated, their passports 
     seized and destroyed.
       They left, stateless, with little more than the shirts on 
     their backs to show for centuries of Egyptian citizenship. . 
     . .''
       One of my last meetings in Egypt was with 86-year-old 
     Carmen Weinstein, the president of the Jewish Community of 
     Cairo (JCC). She was born and raised in Egypt and had lived 
     her entire life there--a life set against the backdrop of a 
     great Jewish emigration out of Egypt, namely the departure of 
     thousands of Egyptian Jews from the 1940s--60s. She led a 
     small community of mostly elderly Jewish women in Cairo, who 
     with their sister community in Alexandria, represent Egypt's 
     remaining Jews.
       There are 12 synagogues left in Cairo. Some, along with a 
     landmark synagogue in Alexandria, have been refurbished by 
     the government of Egypt and/or US. Agency for International 
     Development (USAID) and have received protection as cultural 
     and religious landmarks--many have not. Further, the 900 year 
     old Bassatine Jewish Cemetery is half overrun with squatters 
     and sewage.
       Ms. Weinstein sought to preserve these historic landmarks 
     as well as the patrimony records of the Egyptian Jewish 
     community.
       Not long after my return to the US., Ms. Weinstein passed 
     away and is now buried in the very cemetery she sought to 
     protect. Meanwhile, with the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Coptic 
     Christians, numbering roughly 8-10 million, are leaving in 
     droves in the face of increased repression, persecution and 
     violence.
       A January 8 National Public Radio (NPR) story reported 
     `Coptic Christians will celebrate Christmas on Monday, and 
     many will do so outside their native Egypt. Since the 
     revolution there, their future in the country has looked 
     uncertain and many are resettling in the United States.'

[[Page E915]]

       A May 15 New York Times piece with the headline, 
     `Christians Uneasy in Morsi's Egypt,' reported that, `Since 
     the ouster of Mr. Mubarak in February 2011, a growing number 
     of Copts, including some of the most successful businessmen, 
     have left Egypt or are preparing to do so, fearing 
     persecution by an Islamist-controlled government as much as 
     the stagnant economy that is smothering their industries.'
       And yet our government continues to give increasingly 
     scarce U.S. foreign assistance to the Egyptian government 
     without a single string attached.
       Just last month, weeks before an Egyptian court sentenced 
     more than 40 pro-democracy NGO workers, several of whom are 
     American, including Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's 
     son, to jail, Secretary Kerry quietly waived the law that 
     would have prevented the $1.3 billion, BILLION, in U.S. 
     taxpayer money from going to Egypt absent concrete steps 
     toward true democracy and respect for basic human rights and 
     religious freedom.
       Similarly, Iraq's Christian population has fallen from as 
     many as 1.4 million in 2003 to roughly 500,000 today. 
     Churches have been targeted, believers kidnapped for ransom 
     and families threatened with violence if they stay.
       In October 2010, Islamist extremists laid siege on Our Lady 
     of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad, killing over 50 
     hostages and police, and wounding dozens more.
       The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq reportedly 
     told MidEast Christian News that the number of Christian 
     church declined precipitously in the last decade. There are 
     roughly 60 Christian churches in the entire country, down 
     from more than 300 as recently as 2003.
       Of course other, much smaller but no less vulnerable, 
     religious minorities have also suffered greatly in Iraq. The 
     U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its 
     recently release annual report found that, `Large percentages 
     of the country's smallest religious minorities--which include 
     Chaldo-Assyrian and other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and 
     Yezidis--have fled the country in recent years, threatening 
     these communities' continued existence in Iraq.'
       And yet, last year, the General Accounting Office (GAO) 
     released a report titled, `U.S. Assistance to Iraq's Minority 
     Groups in Response to Congressional Directive,' which it had 
     conducted at the request of several Members of Congress, 
     including Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and myself after hearing 
     from representatives of the Iraqi Diaspora community that 
     despite targeted congressional funding intended to assist 
     these religious communities, little tangible proof or impact 
     was being seen on the ground.
       Over multiple years, Congress directed the State Department 
     and USAID to dedicate certain funds to help Iraq's minority 
     populations. But GAO found that these agencies couldn't prove 
     they spent the funds as Congress intended.
       Perhaps this failure to follow a clear congressional 
     directive was attributable in part to a refusal on the part 
     of this administration, and frankly the previous 
     administration, to acknowledge that minorities were being 
     targeted, rather than merely victims of generalized violence 
     in Iraq.
       In short, over the span of a few decades, the Middle East, 
     with the exception of Israel, has virtually been emptied of 
     Jews. In my conversations with Syrian Christian refugees, 
     Lebanese Christians and Coptic Christians in Egypt, a 
     resounding theme emerged: a similar fate may await the 
     `Sunday People.'
       While it remains to be seen whether the historic exodus of 
     Christians from the region will prove to be as dramatic as 
     what has already happened to the Jewish community, it is 
     without question devastating, as it threatens to erase 
     Christianity from its very roots.
       Consider Iraq. With the exception of Israel, the Bible 
     contains more references to the cities, regions and nations 
     of ancient Iraq than any other country. The patriarch Abraham 
     came from a city in Iraq called Ur. Isaac's bride, Rebekah, 
     came from northwest Iraq.
       Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq, and his sons (the 12 tribes 
     of Israel) were born in northwest Iraq. A remarkable 
     spiritual revival as told in the book of Jonah occurred in 
     Nineveh. The events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq 
     as did the account of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Furthermore, 
     many of Iraq's Christians still speak Aramaic the language of 
     Jesus.
       In fact a February 2013 Smithsonian Magazine story noted 
     `[a]s Jesus died on the cross, he cried in Aramaic, ``My God, 
     my God, why have you forsaken me?''
       Further, in Egypt, some 2,000 years ago, Mary, Joseph and 
     Jesus sought refuge in this land from the murderous aims of 
     King Herod. Egypt's Coptic community traces its origins to 
     the apostle Mark.
       lf, as appears to be happening, the Middle East is 
     effectively emptied of the Christian faith, this will have 
     grave geopolitical implications and does not bode well for 
     the prospects of pluralism and democracy in the region. These 
     developments demand our attention as policymakers.
       But rather than being met with urgency, vision or 
     creativity, our government's response, both Executive and 
     Congressional, has been anemic and at times outright baffling 
     especially to the communities most impacted by the changing 
     Middle East landscape.
       We would do well to recall the words of Holocaust survivor 
     Elie Wiesel, ``We must take sides. Neutrality helps the 
     oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the 
     tormentor, never the tormented.''
       Prior to February, I was last in Egypt in June 2011 four 
     months after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president and 
     turned over power to the military.
       In the face of decades of human rights and religious 
     freedom abuses under the Mubarak regime, successive U.S. 
     administrations, including the Obama Administration, failed 
     to advocate for those whose voices were being silenced. Many 
     pro-democracy activists and religious minorities that I spoke 
     with during that trip felt abandoned by the West. Their 
     disillusionment with the U.S. and general trepidation about 
     the rise of Islamists in the lead up to the elections was 
     tempered by a palpable sense of anticipation, and in some 
     cases, even hope about what the future might hold for the 
     Egyptian people.
       That hope has long since faded and fear has taken up 
     residence.
       In conversation after conversation Coptic Christians, 
     reformers, secularist, women and others told me that the U.S. 
     was perceived as the largest supporter of the Muslim 
     Brotherhood-led government. Further, there was a widely held 
     perception that the U.S. was either disengaged or simply 
     uninterested in advocating for religious freedom and other 
     basic human rights.
       This is a perception informed by reality. Briefly turning 
     from the Middle East for a moment consider the following:
       Genocide persists in Darfur; the Sudan Special Envoy 
     position has been vacant for 3 month; an internationally 
     indicted war criminal, Sudanese president Bashir, travels the 
     globe with impunity; meanwhile the administration actively 
     worked to undermine congressional attempts to isolate Bashir 
     by cutting off non-humanitarian aid to countries who host 
     him, and then in April rewarded a notorious Sudanese 
     government official, accused of torturing enemies and seeking 
     to block U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, with an invitation to 
     Washington for high-level meetings.
       In China, human rights issues are consistently relegated to 
     the back-burner as seen in the recent summit.
       This administration and the previous administration have 
     ignored bipartisan Congressional calls to place Vietnam on 
     the State Department's list of the most egregious religious 
     freedom violators, despite crackdowns on people of faith and 
     an overall deteriorating human rights situation, preferring 
     instead a policy defined simply by trade.
       Consecutive administrations have been silent about the 
     brutal gulags enslaving thousands in North Korea and can 
     barely muster an objection when the Chinese government flouts 
     its international obligations to North Korean refugees by 
     deporting them to an almost certain death sentence.
       The examples are too numerous to cite.
       In 1998 I authored the International Religious Freedom Act 
     (IRFA) which created a dedicated office at the State 
     Department headed by an Ambassador-at-Large who was intended 
     to serve as the primary advisor to the Secretary of State on 
     matters of religious freedom.
       It also created the U.S. Commission on International 
     Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan 
     advisory body distinct from the State Department which can 
     make clear-eyed policy recommendations unfettered by other 
     diplomatic or bureaucratic considerations.
       The legislation created the ``Countries of Particular 
     Concern'' designation, reserved for those countries with the 
     most severe systematic, ongoing and egregious violations.
       A designation which has been grossly under-utilized--this 
     administration has failed to even designate ANY CPC's since 
     2011.
       At the time of introduction, as is their institutional 
     inclination, the State Department was adamantly opposed to 
     the legislation and sought to undermine it at every turn.
       Just last week, the National Security subcommittee of the 
     House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a 
     hearing which examined the government's record on 
     implementing IRFA, at which panelist Chris Seiple testified.
       There was near unanimity that over the course of successive 
     administrations, both Republican and Democrat, IRFA had not 
     been implemented as Congress intended.
       The IRE office is presently buried in the bureaucracy. The 
     ambassador, a fine person, is marginalized. The issue itself 
     America's first freedom, is viewed as periphery.
       Fast forward to 2011. I worked with Congresswoman Anna 
     Eshoo to introduce bipartisan legislation to create a high-
     level special envoy charged with advocating on behalf of 
     religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central 
     Asia.
       At the time of introduction, the IRE ambassador post had 
     been vacant for two years, sending a clear message globally 
     that this issue simply was not a priority.
       The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House last 
     Congress only to stall in the Senate. Then Senators Webb and 
     Kerry blocked it from moving forward largely at the request 
     of the State Department.
       Congresswoman Eshoo and myself along with Senators Roy 
     Blunt and and Carl Levin have reintroduced the legislation 
     this year.
       The legislation mandates that the envoy would have a 
     priority focus on Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and 
     Afghanistan--countries where Christians, Baha'is, Ahdmadiya 
     Muslims, Jews and more face incredible repression, 
     persecution, violence and even death.

[[Page E916]]

       There is a historic precedent for effective special envoys 
     advancing seemingly intractable issues. Consider former Sudan 
     Special Envoy John Danforth. His laser beam focus on the 
     peace process, high-level access to the White House and 
     undivided attention to his mission was incredibly effective.
       I don't pretend to think that a special envoy will single-
     handedly solve the problem, but it certainly can't hurt to 
     have a high-level person within the State Department 
     bureaucracy who is exclusively focused on the protection and 
     preservation of these ancient communities.
       This will send an important message to both our own foreign 
     policy establishment and to suffering communities in the 
     Middle East and elsewhere that religious freedom is a 
     priority--that America will be a voice for the voiceless.
       Let me conclude by sharing the quote of a Coptic priest who 
     was recently interviewed about the blasphemy charges facing 
     the young Coptic teacher I mentioned earlier.
       He said, ``Today, despite this repression, we can live. But 
     tomorrow, what will we do? The coming days will be much 
     worse.''
       This much is clear: absent strong, principled U.S. 
     leadership on this fundamental human right, the future for 
     religious minorities in the Middle East will indeed be much 
     worse.
       In a Constitution Day speech, President Ronald Reagan 
     described the United States Constitution as ``a covenant we 
     have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind.''
       We have an obligation to keep that covenant for it is a 
     covenant that transcends time and place--it is a covenant 
     with the beleaguered Coptic Christian in Egypt, the 
     imprisoned Baha'i in Iran, the fearful Chaldean nun in Iraq.
       We would do well to remember that repressive governments 
     the world over fear the words of the Constitution and the 
     promise they hold as much as they fear the aspirations of 
     their own people.''

                          ____________________