[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 33 (Thursday, February 26, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H1176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REMEMBERING MIDDLE EAST BELIEVERS KILLED FOR THEIR FAITH

  (Mr. HULTGREN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Speaker, in the past few weeks, the Islamic State 
has targeted religious minorities throughout the Middle East, including 
the Yazidis in Iraq and the 21 Coptic Christians executed in Libya.
  This week, ISIS has abducted more than 200 Assyrian Christians. We 
pray earnestly for their release and for comfort for their families.
  These murderers want us to tremble at their physical brutality, but 
an even more sinister violence is at work, a sustained and strategic 
campaign against religious freedom. This is the God-given freedom to 
hold any belief--or none at all--without coercion or reprisal.
  Global attention is and should be transfixed on those killed for 
their faith in the Middle East; yet more than three-quarters of the 
world's population lives under regimes that restrict belief.
  Our Nation's first freedom is not and should not be bound by 
geography or nation. We must defend religious freedom at all times and 
in all places, or this violent cycle will continue.

                          ____________________