[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 123 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2014

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, in yesterday's USA Today, columnist Kirsten 
Powers raised an important question,
  QUOTE: ``Iraq's Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody 
listening?'' UNQUOTE.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the seventh consecutive legislative day that I 
have come to House floor to ask that same question:
  Is anybody listening?
  Less than two weeks ago, on July 19, the Islamic State of Iraq and 
Syria, more commonly referred to as ISIS, ordered Christians to convert 
to Islam, pay taxes levied upon non-Muslims, or be killed.
  In the region around Mosul--what we know as Nineveh in the Bible--
there is not a single Christian left.
  Think about that. There is not one Christian left in the ancient 
heart of Iraqi Christianity. A 2,000-year presence wiped away before 
our eyes in just a matter of weeks.
  Yet President Obama has said nothing.
  And Secretary of State Kerry has said nothing.
  ISIS has driven people from their homes, taken their cars as they 
attempted to leave and stripped them of all their money and 
possessions.
  We have heard accounts of ISIS terrorists cutting the fingers of 
people to steal their wedding rings.
  Yet President Obama has said nothing.
  And Secretary of State Kerry has said nothing.
  Gruesome videos produced by ISIS are appearing on Internet showing 
beheadings and public displays of dismembered Christians. I couldn't 
even watch the video to the end; it was that grotesque.
  Yet President Obama has said nothing.
  And Secretary of State Kerry has said nothing.
  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power--who made a 
name for herself denouncing the U.S. and other governments' failure to 
act in the face of genocide--also has been silent on these genocidal 
acts.
  What Power famously labeled ``A Problem from Hell'' is now taking 
place in Iraq on her watch.
  Yet she says nothing in her post at the UN in New York.
  Perhaps this lack of action should not be surprising given that her 
boss, President Obama, has said nothing.
  President Obama has had multiple opportunities to use his ``bully 
pulpit'' to raise global attention to this genocide.
  But we have heard NOT ONE WORD on the situation of the Christians 
being driven out of Iraq.
  Let me lay out what has happened in Iraq just in the last six weeks:
  All of Christians in Mosul have fled to the north, to Alqosh, Dohuk 
and other Assyrian villages.
  In nearby Qaraqosh, 50,000 Assyrian Christian residents have fled 
from fighting between ISIS and Kurds.
  All Christian institutions in Mosul--all 45 churches monasteries and 
cemeteries--have been looted, destroyed, occupied, converted to mosques 
or shuttered.
  All non-Sunni Muslim groups in Mosul--Shabaks, Yazidis and Turkmen--
have been targeted by ISIS. Most have fled.
  Water and electricity have been cut off by ISIS. The water shortage 
in the areas surrounding Mosul is now a full-blown crisis.
  Mosul is now governed under Sharia law.
  Congress is about to adjourn until after Labor Day. If the events of 
the last two months are any indication, one can only imagine the 
horrors that await over the next five weeks.
  Absent urgent action what more will be on this list?
  We cannot continue to sit back and watch these atrocities unfold.
  President Obama, Secretary Kerry, Ambassador Power--before you take 
your summer vacations, you have a moral obligation to speak up.
  Martin Luther King said QUOTE: ``In the end, we will remember not the 
words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'' UNQUOTE
  President Obama, in your lifetime, books will be written on the end 
of Christianity in the Middle East.
  History will acknowledge you and your administration's lack of will 
to do something--anything.
  You have the power and the pulpit to do something before it is too 
late.
  If you continue to do nothing, your silence will remain heavy on your 
conscious long after you leave office.
  Mr. President, there are a number steps you can take right now that 
would make a difference--steps that don't require new funds or 
additional congressional action:
  ONE. You can sign the bipartisan legislation approved by the House 
and Senate to create a special envoy to promote religious freedom in 
the Middle East that has been sitting on your desk this week. It is 
just waiting for your signature.
  You can name someone to fill this post who can immediately deploy to 
the region to work with the Kurdish and Iraqi governments.
  TWO. You can appoint someone in your administration to be the lead 
person coordinating all of the U.S. government resources necessary to 
stop this genocide.
  THREE. You can publicly thank the Kurdish authorities for protecting 
the Christians and other religious minorities who have fled ISIS and 
found refuge in the Kurdish region;
  FOUR. You can work with trusted NGO's--like Catholic Relief, Save the 
Children, UNICEF and others--who are already on the ground trying to 
help, but need U.S. assistance and leadership to help more people.
  You can make sure they have the food, water, housing and medical 
resources to help the victims of this genocide; and
  FIVE: You can direct the Secretary of State and USAID administrator 
to reprogram existing funds to provide these resources to trusted NGO's 
on the ground.
  Mr. President, those are five simple steps you can do now and over 
the next five weeks that would make a difference.
  All it takes is your interest and your leadership.
  This April marked the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.
  One need only look at President Clinton's continued regret for his 
failure to act to stop the Rwandan genocide to see how President Obama 
and his administration will feel years from now for their failure to 
act.
  Last year, Clinton said ``If we'd gone in sooner, I believe we could 
have saved at least a third of the lives that were lost . . . it had an 
enduring impact on me.''
  They would do well to recall the words of Holocaust survivor Elie 
Wiesel, who said: QUOTE: ``We must take sides. Neutrality helps the 
oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never 
the tormented.''
  Mr. Speaker, I close with the words of German Lutheran pastor 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stood up to the tyranny and horror of Nazism, 
and said, QUOTE: ``Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to 
speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.''
  It's time to act, while there are still people left to save.
  Listen to the words of Psalm 82:3-4:
  Defend the weak and the fatherless; Uphold the cause of the poor and 
oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; Deliver them from the hand of 
the wicked.''
  Also, in the Old Testament in Ecclesiastes 4:1 it says,
  ``Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place 
under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed--and they have no 
comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors--and they have no 
comforter.''
  Mr. President, I call on you to be on the side of the oppressed 
Christians.

                          ____________________