[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 28, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2494-H2495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE GLOBAL CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION EPIDEMIC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, this Easter, Pope Francis focused 
his message on the worldwide persecution of Christians. Around the 
world, Christians are being imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their 
faith. According to the Pew Research Center, no religious group is 
persecuted in more countries around the world than Christians. 
Christians faced persecution in 102 countries out of about 190-plus 
that we have in the world. That was in 2013. So tonight I will mention 
only eight of those countries: Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Egypt, 
Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Kenya. And I will also mention that terrorist 
group, ISIS.
  Christian pastor and American citizen Saeed Abedini has been held in 
an Iranian jail for the last 2\1/2\ years because he is a Christian. 
Weeks before he turned 7, Pastor Abedini's son wrote to his imprisoned 
father, inviting him to come to his birthday party. In reply, Pastor 
Abedini wrote: ``Daddy loves you so much. I long to be there for your 
birthday and to make this reunion happen, but my chains are keeping me 
from you.'' His son celebrated his 7th birthday last month. It was his 
third birthday without his dad. His dad is still in the jailhouse 
because he is a Christian.
  According to the 2015 Open Doors World Watch List, North Korea is the 
worst persecutor of Christians in the whole world. Christians are sent 
to prison camps for possession of Bibles, which is a crime. Some are 
even executed because they are Christians. The State Department 
estimates that 80,000 to 120,000 North Koreans are imprisoned in labor 
camps, many because of their religious beliefs. In November 2013, 80 
North Korean Christians were reportedly executed for possession of 
Bibles and South Korean religious films.
  Now to Pakistan. In Pakistan, two suicide blasts hit the Christ 
Church and Catholic Church last month, killing 17 Christians. A 
Pakistan Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility for the attack, 
which left another 80 people injured. Last week, two Muslims heading to 
Friday prayers at their mosque in the same city where the churches were 
bombed came across a 14-year-old Christian boy. They stopped him and 
asked him his religious affiliation. And the boy proudly said: ``I told 
them that I am Christian. They started beating me,'' he said. ``When I 
tried running, both boys started following me through the street.'' 
They caught me and ``threw kerosene on me and set me on fire.'' This 
Pakistan boy, this Christian has burns covering more than 55 percent of 
his body.
  In Egypt, over a 3-day period in 2013, Coptic Christians experienced 
the worst single attack against their churches in 700 years, with 40 
Christian churches destroyed and over 100 other sites severely damaged. 
Thousands and thousands of Coptic Christians are estimated to have fled 
their homeland of Egypt because of religious persecution.
  Most Coptic Christians in Egypt have a tattoo of a cross on their 
wrist, Madam Speaker. It is a sign of devotion to their Christian 
faith. When his Arabic language teacher told Ayman Nabil Labib to cover 
that tattoo in the classroom, Ayman pulled out the cross that was 
hanging around his neck for all in the classroom to see. The teacher 
was enraged. He choked Ayman and asked his Muslim classmates, ``What 
are you going to do with him?'' His classmates then beat Ayman to 
death. He was murdered in an Egyptian classroom because he was a 
Christian.
  In Libya, ISIS captured and beheaded 21 people because they were 
Christians from nearby Egypt. When the victims' families wanted to 
build a church in their honor, they were attacked by another Muslim mob 
and beaten.
  In Syria, the situation is even worse for Christians. In June 2013, a 
cluster of Christian villages were totally destroyed. The head of all 
Franciscans in the Middle East reported that ``of the 4,000 inhabitants 
of the church village of Ghassanieh, no more than 10 people remain.'' 
In a village of 4,000 Christians, 10 are left.
  In Syria, it is not just Assad's thugs killing Christians. Two Syrian 
bishops have been kidnapped by rebel groups. Militants expelled 90 
percent of the Christians in the city of Homs. Patriarch Gregorios III 
of Antioch says that, out of a population of 1.75 million, 450,000 
Syrian Christians have fled Syria in fear.
  Then to Iraq. In Iraq, the story is just as bleak. The number of 
Christian churches in Iraq has declined from 300 in 2003 to 57 today. A 
place that Christians have called their home since the time of Jesus, 
Iraq's Christian population has almost entirely disappeared. The 
population has dropped 90 percent since the first gulf war.

[[Page H2495]]

  In Kenya, Christians are also persecuted. At 5:30 in the morning on 
April 2 of this year, the terrorist group al Shabaab attacked a school. 
Collins Wetangula, a student at the school, said when the gunmen 
arrived at his dormitory, he could hear them opening doors and asking 
the people who were hiding inside whether they were Christians or 
whether they were Muslims.
  Here is what he said: ``If you were a Christian, you were shot on the 
spot.'' A spokesman for the terror group told the BBC that it attacked 
the school because ``it's on Muslim land colonized by non-Muslims.'' Of 
the 147 people who were slaughtered that day because they were 
Christians, many of them were students--teenagers, kids.
  When the same terrorist group attacked a shopping mall in Kenya in 
2013, they took a number of shoppers captive. One of them was Joshua 
Hakim. When Joshua got close to his attackers, he showed them his ID, 
but he covered up his Christian name with his thumb. ``They told me to 
go,'' he recalled later. ``Then an Indian man came forward, and they 
said, `What is the name of Mohammed's mother?' When he couldn't answer, 
they just shot him'' on the spot.
  There are many more unnamed Christian martyrs who are persecuted for 
their faith, Madam Speaker. The persecution of Christians has been 
going on since Stephen was stoned for his faith in Acts 7. But what 
these current accounts show is that persecutions of Christians around 
the world are growing in number and are being tolerated more by 
governments and, in my opinion, encouraged by some non-Christian 
societies.
  We cannot deny this reality. We must tell it like it is. People 
should not make excuses for or cover up the widespread persecution of 
Christians throughout the world. Governments, terrorist groups, and 
others should not get a pass and ``tacit hunting permits'' to kill 
Christians.
  The problem is rogue States like Pakistan and Iran and rogue 
terrorist groups like ISIS who get their legitimacy and power from 
imprisoning and killing Christians. As a country, the United States 
needs to reexamine its relationship with States that persecute 
Christians. Maybe we should give these countries less American money 
until they start protecting--instead of arresting--Christians. We need 
to be singularly minded when it comes to describing groups like ISIS 
and what they really are: They are evil; they kill in the name of their 
radical religion.
  Madam Speaker, one of the pillars of our Nation and a foundation of 
our Republic is the principle of religious freedom, religious freedom 
for all faiths. It is constitutionally protected in the First Amendment 
of the Constitution. Of the five rights mentioned in the First 
Amendment, religious freedom and liberty is mentioned first. This is 
not by accident. Our forefathers were serious about the protection of 
religious liberty. It is a basic civil right, human right, and an 
inalienable right.
  Since Pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution in 
Europe, our Nation has stood as a bright beacon to the world for 
religious freedom for all faiths--Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, 
and others. But the question before us today is: Will we remain a 
beacon of hope for persecuting Christians around the world?
  It is properly written in Scripture, a parable by the good Lord. I 
will paraphrase. He said: A man was traveling down a road, and he fell 
among robbers. The man was beaten, and his property was stolen, and he 
was left for dead. Other people traveled down the same road, saw the 
victim, but they passed over on the other side of the road. They went 
their own way and avoided this victim.
  Madam Speaker, we cannot pass on the other side while Christians 
worldwide are being beaten, beheaded, and brutalized because of their 
religious faith, being a Christian. We must be that beacon that shines 
brightly in proud protection of religious freedom for all, including 
Christians.
  And that is just the way it is.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________