[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 22, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6584-H6585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GENOCIDE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, the international legal definition of the
crime of genocide is found in article II of the 1948 Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
It says:
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the
group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of
the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of
life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent
births within the group; forcibly transferring children of
the group to another group.
I believe that what is happening to the Christian community in Iraq
is genocide. I also believe that it is a ``crime against humanity.''
Last Thursday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly
referred to as ISIS, gave the few remaining Christians in Mosul until
Saturday to leave or be killed.
From The New York Times, it reads:
Some went on foot, their cars having been confiscated.
Others rode bicycles or motor scooters. Few were able to take
anything of value as militants seized their money and
jewelry. Some--just a few because they were not healthy
enough to flee--submitted to the demands that they convert to
Islam to avoid being killed.
ISIS is systematically targeting Christians and other religious
minorities in Iraq for extinction.
I will submit for the Record the complete article from The New York
Times and an editorial from today's Wall Street Journal for history to
see what is happening.
[From the New York Times, July 21, 2014]
Concern and Support for Iraqi Christians Forced by Militants to Flee
Mosul
Baghdad.--A day after Christians fled Mosul, the northern
city controlled by Islamist extremists, under the threat of
death, Muslims and Christians gathered under the same roof--a
church roof--here on Sunday afternoon. By the time the piano
player had finished the Iraqi national anthem, and before the
prayers, Manhal Younis was crying.
``I can't feel my identity as an Iraqi Christian,'' she
said, her three little daughters hanging at her side.
A Muslim woman sitting next to her in the pew reached out
and whispered, ``You are the true original people here, and
we are sorry for what has been done to you in the name of
Islam.''
The warm scene here was an unusual counterpoint to the
wider story of Iraq's unraveling, as Sunni militants with the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria gain territory and persecute
anyone who does not adhere to their harsh version of Islamic
law. On Saturday, to meet a deadline by the ISIS militants,
most Christians in Mosul, a community almost as old as
Christianity itself, left with little more than the clothes
they were wearing.
The major players in the Iraq and Syria crisis are often
both allies and antagonists, working together on one front on
one day and at cross-purposes the next.
Some went on foot, their cars having been confiscated;
others rode bicycles or motor scooters. Few were able to take
anything of value, as militants seized their money and
jewelry. Some--just a few, and because they were not healthy
enough to flee--submitted to demands that they convert to
Islam to avoid being killed.
``There are five Christian families who converted to Islam
because they were threatened with death,'' said Younadim
Kanna, a Christian and a member of Iraq's Parliament. ``They
did so just to stay alive.''
On Sunday, outrage came from many corners of Iraq, and
beyond.
In a public address, Pope Francis expressed his concern for
the Christians of Mosul and other parts of the Middle East,
``where they have lived since the beginning of Christianity,
together with their fellow citizens, offering a meaningful
contribution to the good of society.''
He continued: ``Today, they are persecuted. Our brothers
are persecuted and hunted away; they have to leave their
homes without being allowed to take anything with them.''
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, released
a statement condemning ``in the strongest terms the
systematic persecution of minority populations in Iraq'' and
particularly the threat against Christians.
And Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who is struggling
to remain in power as Iraq's political factions negotiate to
form a new government, said Sunday, ``The atrocities
perpetrated by ISIS against our Iraqi citizens, the
Christians in Nineveh Province and the attacks on the
churches and houses of worship in the areas that fall under
their control, reveal without any doubt the terrorist and
criminal nature of this extremist group that poses a
dangerous threat to the humanity and the heritage and legacy
that has been preserved over centuries.''
He called on the ``whole world to tighten the siege on
those terrorists and stand as one force to confront them.''
That was perhaps a reference to the influx of foreign
fighters into Iraq, many of whom have also fought in Syria's
civil war. On Sunday, ISIS issued a
[[Page H6585]]
statement claiming responsibility for two suicide attacks in
Baghdad on Saturday, and said that one had been carried out
by a German citizen, and the other by a Syrian.
The gathering on Sunday at St. George Chaldean Church,
built in 1964 and situated in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood,
was as much about Iraqi solidarity as it was a gesture of
condemnation for the persecution of Christians. In many ways
Iraq's struggle today is the same as it has been since the
country was founded nearly a century ago, at the end of World
War I: how to establish a national identity larger than a
particular faith or ethnicity.
In the pews Muslims and Christians alike held signs that
read, ``I'm Iraqi. I'm Christian.'' Muhammad Aga, who
organized the event over Facebook, spoke, and listed Iraq's
many narrower identities: Christians, Arabs, Kurds, Shabaks,
Turkmen, Yazidis, Sunnis and Shiites. ``All of those people
who carry Iraqi identity,'' he said.
The church's patriarch, Louis Raphael Sako, said, ``I carry
every Iraqi in my heart.''
After the service, two men, cousins in their 60s, stood in
the church courtyard. They grew up in Mosul, and moved to
Baghdad as teenagers. They have witnessed much of Iraq's
traumatic history of coups, revolutions, wars and sectarian
cleansing, and have stayed the whole time.
``You have to be angry,'' said Faiz Faraj, 65, a retired
teacher. ``You must cry.''
But, he said, ``Iraqis have suffered for a long time, but
this will pass.''
His 9-year-old granddaughter, Lana Fanar, recited at the
service a poem written by a well-known Iraqi poet in 2006, as
Iraq was in the grip of sectarian killings. Its words could
be spoken of any of Iraq's previous traumas, or today:
``I cry for my country. I cry for Baghdad. I cry for the
history and the glory days. I cry for the artists, for the
water, for the trees. I cry for my religion. I cry for my
beliefs.''
____
[From the Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2014]
The Christian Purge From Mosul
The Islamist attacks on non-Muslims are a problem for Islam
Imagine if a fundamentalist Christian sect captured the
French city of Lyon and began a systematic purge of Muslims.
Their mosques were destroyed, their crescents defaced, the
Koran burned and then all Muslims forced to flee or face
execution. Such an event would be unthinkable today, and if
it did occur Pope Francis and all other Christian leaders
would denounce it and support efforts by governments to stop
it.
Yet that is essentially what is happening in reverse now in
Mosul, as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham drives all
signs of Christianity from the ancient city. Christians have
lived in Mosul for nearly 2,000 years, but today they are
reliving the Muslim religious wars of the Middle Ages.
They have been given a choice either to convert to Islam or
flee. They were warned before a weekend deadline that if they
remained and didn't convert, they would be killed.
Thousands--often entire families--have had to leave the city
with nothing more than their clothes as militants robbed them
of money or jewelry. Crosses have been destroyed across the
city.
That such violent bigotry in the name of religion can exist
in the 21st century is hard for many in the Christian world
to believe, but that is part of the West's problem. Jews know
all too well that anti-Semitism can inspire murderous
behavior. But Christians or post-Christian secularists who
are content in their modern prosperity often prefer to turn
their heads or blame all religions as equally intolerant.
Today's religious extremism is almost entirely Islamic.
While ISIS's purge may be the most brutal, Islamists in Egypt
have driven thousands of Coptic Christians from homes they've
occupied for centuries. The same is true across the Muslim
parts of Africa. This does not mean that all Muslims are
extremists, but it does mean that all Muslims have an
obligation to denounce and resist the extremists who murder
or subjugate in the name of Allah. Too few imams living in
the tolerant West will speak up against it.
As for the post-Christian West, most elites may now be
nonbelievers. But a culture that fails to protect believers
may eventually find that it lacks the self-belief to protect
itself.
Mr. WOLF. 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 Lions' Den.
Monday's New York Times' piece also quotes a Muslim woman at a prayer
service on Sunday at a church in Baghdad, whispering to a Christian
woman sitting in the pew next to her: ``You are the true original
people here. We are so sorry for what has been done to you in the name
of Islam.''
On June 16, for the first time in 1,600 years, there was no mass said
in Mosul.
Pope Francis on Sunday expressed concern about what was unfolding in
Mosul and in other parts of the Middle East, noting that these
communities since the beginning of Christianity have ``coexisted there
alongside their fellow citizens, making a significant contribution to
the good of society. Today, they are persecuted,'' the Pope said. ``Our
brothers are persecuted. They are cast out. They are forced to leave
their homes without having the chance to take anything with them.''
The United Nations released a statement attributed to Ban Ki-moon
that, in part, said: ``The Secretary General reiterates that any
systematic attack on the civilian population or segments of the
civilian population because of their ethnic background, religious
beliefs or faith may constitute a crime against humanity, for which
those responsible must be held accountable.''
Where is the Obama administration?
In June, 55 Members of Congress--Republicans and Democrats--urged the
Obama administration to actively engage with the Iraqi central
government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to prioritize
additional security support for especially vulnerable populations,
notably Iraq's ancient Christian community, and provide emergency
humanitarian assistance to these communities.
{time} 1215
I want to read the last lines of our letter: ``Absent immediate
action, we will most certainly witness the annihilation of an ancient
faith community from the lands they have inhabited for centuries.''
It is happening, Mr. Speaker. They are almost all gone, just as we
predicted.
The Obama administration has to make protecting this ancient
community a priority. It needs to encourage the Kurds to do what they
can to protect those fleeing ISIS and provide safe refuge.
It needs to ensure that, of the resources going to the region, a
portion be guaranteed to help the Christian community. It needs to have
the same courage as President Bush and former Secretary of State Colin
Powell when they said genocide was taking place in Darfur.
The United Nations has a role too. It should immediately initiate
proceedings in the International Criminal Court against ISIS for crimes
against humanity.
The time to act is now.
____________________