[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 18223-18226]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my dear friend, Frank 
Wolf from Virginia and the discussions he was having, this needs 
further emphasis.
  Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News dated 10 November 
2013, ``The Triple Tragedy of Christian Persecution in the Middle 
East.'' It explains that Christians in the broader Middle East, it 
seems, are in the crosshairs.
  In September, two Taliban suicide bombers rushed All Saints Church in 
Peshawar, Pakistan, as worshippers exited. One exploded his bomb 
outside, one inside. Eighty-two people were slaughtered. Eighty-two 
people trying to peacefully attend a Christian church in Pakistan, 
where we are sending so much money, were slaughtered, with no 
consequences coming from the Pakistani Government that we keep 
engorging with our money.
  Back to the article.
  In March, it says, two churches and about 100 Christian homes were 
ransacked in Lahore. Today, millions of Christians and other religious 
minorities are facing vile persecution. Many Christians are struggling 
to escape from the countries where their ancestors have lived for two 
millennia. The human tragedy unfolding in these countries is profoundly 
disturbing, but the tragedy extends beyond the suffering of individuals 
and families.
  Next month, in Rome, Georgetown University, in partnership with 
Baylor University, where I went to law school, will showcase the 
findings of a 2-year study on Christianity and freedom. Three dozen 
scholars will assemble to discuss what Christians have contributed to 
freedom and prosperity in their own country and, implicitly, what will 
be lost if those countries are emptied of their Christian populations.
  Might be worthy of parenthetically inserting that, in Afghanistan, 
where thousands of Americans have shed their blood for Afghan freedom, 
where billions and billions of dollars have been spent, we help them 
with a constitution that makes shari'a law the law of the land, that 
makes the President, basically, almost a dictator.
  As some of the regional leaders have told me, Dana Rohrabacher, Steve 
King, and others, look, if you would just help us with an amendment to 
the Afghanistan constitution, we would have a shot at staying alive 
after you pull out.
  The Northern Alliance that actually defeated the Taliban completely 
within a few months after we started providing them aerial support, 
embedded special ops, and intelligence, less than 500, they defeated 
the Taliban, provided some weapons. They defeated the Taliban.

                              {time}  1415

  People have forgotten, but for years, in Iraq, people referred to 
Afghanistan--even Senator Obama. That is where the real fight is. That 
was where it was done well. And it was done well.
  The Taliban was defeated. It was routed by some of the most 
incredible and fearless fighting, led by General Dostum. We have got 
people in this administration now calling him and others war criminals 
because they fought for themselves, their own freedom, to rid 
themselves of tyrannical radical Islamists. They are Muslims. They are 
my Muslim friends. They defeated our enemy. They are the enemy of our 
enemy. And yet this administration is releasing Taliban.
  One of the Taliban leaders that has been on national Afghan 
television was released from Guantanamo by this administration for 
humanitarian purposes. And the humanitarian purposes are, now he is 
back leading the Taliban and making it clear that the Taliban will 
control all of Afghanistan once the United States pulls out. He likes 
to talk in terms of how the U.S. has been greatly defeated, and that is 
why we are begging the Taliban, offering to buy them things, give them 
things if they will just let us exit gracefully.

[[Page 18224]]

  We are embarrassed around the world. We do no longer have the world's 
respect. There are a lot of countries that have never admired us. 
Tyrannical leaders have not admired the United States because we are 
the only nation, that I am aware of, in the history of the world that 
shed our blood and our treasure for other people to have freedom. That 
is why they still speak Japanese in Japan. That is why they still speak 
German in Germany. We have never been about building some great empire. 
We have been about freedom, liberty. No other country has done that. No 
other country has died for the cause of liberty for people they didn't 
know.
  And now it seems that this administration keeps committing us to 
support countries that are persecuting Christians, persecuting 
secularists, persecuting those who do not have the strict radical 
Islamist beliefs that the radical Islamic believers have, the leaders, 
as radical Islamist believers have.
  This article in the Dallas News goes on and says:

       The countries include Egypt, where the holy family fled 
     when Jesus was a baby. Many Christians now are exiting Egypt 
     in the wake of the badly misnamed ``Arab Spring.'' In August 
     alone, scores of churches were torched, some of them dating 
     to the fifth century.
       They include Syria, Paul's destination when he was called 
     by Jesus. Today, many Syrian Christians have fled, fearing 
     the prospects of an Islamist regime. One village, Maaloula, 
     is one of the last places on Earth where Aramaic, the 
     language of Jesus, is still spoken. In September, it was 
     overrun by Islamist terrorists.

  Those, by the way, are the Islamist rebels that this administration 
is supporting.
  It has been publicly reported, this administration--without Congress 
making a move to stop them--has sent tons and tons of weapons to the 
radical Islamist rebels in Syria who are killing, raping, and torturing 
Christians in Syria.
  If there is a God, as I know with all my heart there is, if the God 
that had his protective hand on Israel--until Israel stopped honoring 
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--if that God exists, as I know in 
my heart he does, then how long will he continue to have a hand of 
protection on a nation that has, in the last 2 years, repeatedly 
betrayed and stabbed Israel in the back, taken whatever actions it 
could to prevent Israel from defending itself, and in this last act of 
ignorance, in trying to negotiate with Iranian terrorist leaders who 
want the little Satan, Israel, wiped off the map--they made that very 
clear--who want the great Satan, the United States, wiped out the map.
  Of course they will talk to the United States. Of course. They are 
working as allies with North Korea. And North Korea can explain to 
them, as we have talked about here on the floor, how in 1994 they 
convinced Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, and Wendy Sherman, who was 
the policy director for North Korea for the Clinton administration, to 
do a deal where the United States would give them nuclear reactors, 
help them, get them running, fuel, whatever they needed, and in return, 
we were basically asking them to renounce nuclear weapons and promise 
they wouldn't develop nuclear weapons. And we additionally agreed to 
not be inspecting their nuclear facilities, which actually allowed them 
to develop the nuclear bombs and the ballistic missiles by which they 
are assisting Iran.
  Wendy Sherman actually briefed this Congress this week. She is the 
lead negotiator for the Obama administration. I mean, that makes as 
much sense as an administration hiring a company to do an absolutely 
essential critical Web site for people's health and well-being as 
someone who has no track record of being terribly successful. I mean, 
surely an administration wouldn't do that. Oh, yes, they did do that 
with ObamaCare. Oh, yes, they are doing it in negotiating with 
terrorist thugs who want us wiped off the map.
  I mean, this is the same kind of inane thinking that would have an 
American President in the 1970s proclaiming the Ayatollah Khomeini as a 
man of peace when he was a terrorist and took over a nation and its 
military, for the first time in generations that a terrorist Islamic 
leader had been the leader of a country with a powerful military.
  Here is another article, from Townhall.com, December 5, 2013, by Conn 
Carroll:

       Violence against Christians is rising across the Middle 
     East. Open Doors USA's CEO David Curry investigates for the 
     December issue of Townhall magazine.
       Christians in the Middle East and around the world are 
     being persecuted, imprisoned, and martyred for their faith. 
     There is widespread, systematic violence, and no one in the 
     mainstream media and government seems to have noticed. We may 
     see the elimination and extinction of Christianity in its 
     very birthplace, without a whimper of protest from the West.

  I have got to say, if the God who protected Israel in its inception 
through many generations until they stopped honoring the God of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--which, by the way, no country has ever 
fallen while it was truly honoring the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. So if you were completely a-religious, completely atheistic, but 
you wanted to have a free country and you wanted to have it safe and 
protected, then it would sound like, from historical purposes, that it 
might be a good thing to encourage those who believe in God to keep 
doing so, because when a nation's leaders honor that God, that nation 
is protected. It is only when it turns away that it falls.
  The article goes on:

       Middle Eastern Christians are not persecuted because they 
     are criminals, anarchists, or for participating in uncivil 
     behavior. They are persecuted because of what they believe. 
     They are not promoting any particular political party or 
     agenda. They simply want the freedom of faith and religion 
     that Americans experience every day.
       It is puzzling why most of our media and political leaders 
     remain silent, despite overwhelming evidence of a major 
     humanitarian crisis. When the scope of the persecution is 
     seen, it's hard to understand how this could have slipped 
     under the radar of nearly all our leaders in Washington. One 
     is left wondering if the oversight is intentional or merely a 
     giant blind spot the size of the entire Middle Eastern 
     region.
       Consider what occurred during a 4-week period during August 
     and September: Syrian rebels attacked the historic Christian 
     enclave of Maaloula, damaging some iconic churches while 
     driving out most of the Christians as well as other 
     residents.
       Jihadi terrorists blew up a church in Peshawar, Pakistan, 
     taking more than 85 lives and injuring many more. After the 
     attack, Pakistani Christians protested in the streets, to no 
     avail, demanding protection of their churches and schools, 
     which are under daily threat of harassment and destruction.
       Muslim Brotherhood forces in Egypt attacked and burned 73 
     churches, hundreds of Christian-owned businesses, properties, 
     and schools.
       These are but a handful of attacks that make news. Each 
     day, Christians in the Middle East are suffering all manner 
     of indignities for their faith. Those include destruction of 
     property, harassment, targeted rape of Christian women, and a 
     legal system that ignores the rights due to their faith. Many 
     governments fail to pursue, capture, and prosecute jihadist 
     radicals who perpetrate these crimes against Christ's 
     followers.

  Then it goes on to talk about a broader pattern. Leadership in a 
vacuum.
  An article from Crossmap.com says:

       One Christian Killed Every 11 Minutes: U.K. Parliament is 
     Told Christianity is ``Most Persecuted Religion.''
       The plight of Christians around the world was discussed in 
     a 3-hour debate at the Houses of Parliament in London 
     yesterday. Members of the House of Commons were told that the 
     persecution of Christians is increasing, that one Christian 
     is killed around every 11 minutes around the world, and that 
     Christianity is the ``most persecuted religion globally.''
       A long list of countries in which life as a Christian is 
     most difficult was discussed, including Syria, North Korea, 
     Eritrea, Nigeria, Iraq, and Egypt.
       M.P. Jim Shannon said the persecution of Christians is, 
     ``the biggest story in the world that has never been told.'' 
     He said that although the right to freedom of thought, 
     conscience, and religion is enshrined in the Universal 
     Declaration of Human Rights, there are many countries in 
     which these rights are not given.
       Shannon alleged that 200 million Christians will be 
     persecuted for their faith this year, while he said that 500 
     million live in ``dangerous neighborhoods.''
       He added that in Syria Christians are ``caught between 
     opposing sides in the conflict,'' and mentioned the 
     ``specific targeting'' of Christian-dominated locations, such 
     as Sadad and Maaloula.
       M.P. Sammy Wilson said that in Syria, ``50,000 Christians 
     have been cleared from the

[[Page 18225]]

     city of Homs,'' while in Sudan, 2 million Christians were 
     killed by the regime over a 30-year period.

                              {time}  1430

  He added:

       Within the last month, hundreds of people, from Nigeria to 
     Eritrea to Kazakhstan to China, have been arrested and put in 
     prison simply because of their faith, and when they go into 
     prison, they are denied due process. They are denied access 
     to lawyers. They are sometimes even denied knowledge of the 
     charges facing them. They can languish in prison for a long 
     time and in horrible conditions.
       This is not only happening in Muslim countries. From 
     Morocco to Pakistan, Christians in Muslim countries are under 
     threat, but it happens elsewhere, too.

  There is an article from Religious Freedom Coalition from October 18 
of this year. It says:

       On Wednesday evening, Senator John McCain was on NBC 
     Nightly News and was asked what he thought about Congressman 
     Louie Gohmert suggesting that he was supporting al Qaeda-
     linked groups in Syria.
       To this, McCain responded that he considered Representative 
     Gohmert to be a ``person of no intelligence''--clearly 
     suggesting that Gohmert was dimwitted and not worthy of 
     dealing with.
       In responding to McCain's attack on his intelligence, 
     Gohmert issued the following statement to the media.
       ``Obviously, Senator McCain would be better off with `no 
     intelligence' since he doesn't know the Syrian opposition he 
     met with is infested with al Qaeda and terrorist kidnappers. 
     His `intelligence' even caused him to support the Muslim 
     Brotherhood in Egypt that burned churches and killed 
     Christians, as the Senator stood against the will of the 
     massive majority of Egyptians, including moderate Muslims, 
     Christians, and secularists who demanded the Muslim 
     Brotherhood extremist persecutions must end.''

  I want to add here that this administration has supported the Muslim 
Brotherhood leadership of President Morsi in Egypt while Christians 
were being persecuted and as the largest arising, gathering of people 
in protest of the history of the world rose up in Egypt and demanded an 
end to the radical Islamic rule of President Morsi after he had vastly 
exceeded, repeatedly, the constitutional powers.
  And as they told me in my last trip to Egypt, unfortunately, the 
constitution that we should have helped them do a better job with did 
not include any provision for impeachment. I can't understand why the 
Obama administration would not have encouraged a country developing a 
new constitution to put in a provision for impeachment. I don't know 
why this administration would not have encouraged that, but it wasn't 
there.
  So when President Morsi vastly exceeded the authority of the 
constitution and began moving toward being a monarch, millions of 
people--reportedly 20, 30, 33 million Egyptians rose up--90 million 
people in the whole country--they rose up and demanded that the 
President be removed.
  The Christian Pope in Egypt told me personally that this was the will 
of the people. Please tell the administration and people in America 
this was not a coup. This was the people of Egypt rising up, as he 
talked about arm-in-arm the moderate Muslims, secularists, Christians 
joined hands, joined arms, and protested and demanded that the military 
remove President Morsi. And they did.
  As these articles have talked about, the violence in August, the 
violence in the summer against Christian churches--73 or so burned 
down, Christians killed and tortured--that was by the Muslim 
Brotherhood. And because the people of Egypt and the military could see 
the persecution of Christians, and they wanted to stop it, they 
basically disbanded the Muslim Brotherhood as a party, as an 
organization in Egypt; and the burning of churches stopped and the 
persecution of Christians stopped.
  And to such a great and noble thing that the Egyptians have done in 
bringing an end to this radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood control of 
Egypt, bringing an end to the burning of churches, bringing an end to 
the killing and torturing of Christians in Egypt, how has this 
administration reacted to reward Egypt for doing such a noble thing?
  The aid that this administration was providing to Egypt when it was 
controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood has now been cut off because the 
Egyptian people had the temerity to demand an end to radical Islamic 
reign and the killing and persecution of Christians.
  It is unbelievable that I live in a country that rewards groups that 
persecute Christians and withdraws assistance to those who stop the 
persecution of Christians.
  This article says:

       Of course, McCain is doing exactly what someone who has 
     been busted usually does: he smears his accuser. Why else 
     would McCain defend the likes of Reid, Schumer, and Durbin 
     while accusing Gohmert of having ``no intelligence''? The 
     answer is that Gohmert is doing what no one at his level or 
     higher is doing; he's calling McCain out for siding with 
     America's enemies.
       Those were comments of former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat. 
     He has seen the light, ended his time as a terrorist, and is 
     trying to educate people on the dangers of radical Islam.

  The article points out that our friend, Senator McCain, had hired a 
Syrian Islamist propagandist, Elizabeth O'Bagy, to become one of his 
legislative assistants after she was exposed for lying about her Ph.D. 
and being paid shill for Islamists seeking to overthrow President Assad 
of Syria.
  As former terrorist, Walid Shoebat explains:

       Congressman Louie Gohmert should be getting reinforcements 
     from the more conservative elements in the Republican Party. 
     But will he? Frankly, we doubt it.
       Congressman Gohmert deserves our praise, our vocal support, 
     and our prayers for having the courage to hold another 
     Republican responsible for promoting national security 
     policies that endanger the lives and freedoms of millions of 
     Syrians and Egyptians who do not wish to live under an 
     Islamic dictator.

  I appreciate their commendation. I know that there is not a Senator 
in the U.S. Senate that wants to do harm to this country or to 
Christians around the world. But that is why it is so important to take 
a look at what this country's, this administration's policies are doing 
to the cause of persecution of Christians around the world.
  An article from Christian Today, dated Wednesday, December 4:

       Seventy Christians killed at the hands of Boko Haram in 
     Nigeria.
       Further attacks against Christians in Nigeria have been 
     reported, bringing the total number killed in the past year 
     to an estimated 900. According to Release International, 34 
     Christians were murdered in Borno State in the northeast last 
     month, and raiders killed an additional 37 in the central 
     Plateau State on 26 November.
       Church leaders believe the attacks in the north were 
     carried out directly by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, 
     while those in central Nigeria were carried out under their 
     direction.

  What is going on around the world right now with the persecution of 
Christianity is tragic. Or as the UK Parliament was told, Christians 
are the most persecuted people in the whole world. In fact, even in the 
United States right now, Christians are about the only group in America 
against whom it is okay to discriminate. It is okay to hate them and 
ascribe hatred to the believers and the man of love and peace, Jesus 
Christ. It is rather tragic.
  And as the world sees, this administration continues. As leaders in 
the Middle East told a handful of us back in September, What do you not 
understand? It was the Muslim Brotherhood behind the attack on 9/11 of 
2001. It was the Taliban, but basically the Muslim Brotherhood in 
Afghanistan you went to war against. It was the Muslim Brotherhood that 
was killing Christians in Egypt. It was the Muslim Brotherhood--al 
Qaeda--that attacked you in Libya, that helped in Libya, and now you 
are helping them in Syria.
  We don't understand what you don't understand. The people you 
declared war on that hate you and want to destroy you, you are 
supporting in Syria and you supported in Egypt. We don't understand.
  And for moderate Muslims around the world, our friends in 
Afghanistan, our friends in the Middle East, they don't understand how 
we keep rewarding those who hate Christians and hate the United States, 
and we persecute leadership like in Egypt right now that stopped the 
persecution of Christians. We ought to be sending people rushing over 
to Egypt saying thank you for stopping persecution of especially 
Christians, but also moderate Muslims and secularists in Egypt. You 
have

[[Page 18226]]

done a good thing. We ought to be helping them set up their next 
elections, which they want to do.
  As I am sure people are aware, CNN has got a story here about, 
``China claim of air rights over disputed islands creates risk of 
incident.''
  China has wanted to claim this part of the ocean for decades, but 
they were always afraid of making a move to physically exert claim over 
this area of the blue water. And yet they have obviously come to 
believe that the United States is so weakly led right now that they 
could make claim to this part of the sea that they were scared to claim 
in the past and overtly take control over it. It hurts our friend 
Japan; it hurts other allies for us not to take a stand.
  And yet we get reports that this administration was telling our 
allies, Well, just do what China requests for now. Just do what they 
request--instead of showing strong leadership to stand up against a 
move of aggression.
  We see Russia moving more radically than we have seen in decades. 
People just thought Russia had gone away. The Soviet Union did go away, 
but Russia now has perceived a vacuum in world leadership since the 
United States seems to be taking a leave of absence; and now we have 
Putin being considered more powerful than our U.S. President.
  Well, I can see how some would see the aggressive leadership he has 
taken and believe that he is more powerful. It is not right. Our 
President has all the power he needs if he would use it.
  But it is time to take a stand, even for those who like to belittle 
Christianity, even those who have far different beliefs. This Nation 
has had an invisible protective hand that has guided it, led us away 
from slavery, led us to proper civil rights.

                              {time}  1445

  Then it seemed we were at about the peak of enforcing our 
Constitution so that it didn't discriminate, so that the words of the 
Declaration of Independence were fully embraced:

       We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
     created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
     certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, 
     liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  Yet, as churches have been behind the movement to establish the 
Constitution, the movement to eliminate slavery, the movement to 
recognize civil rights so people are not judged by the color of their 
skin but by the content of their character--as was the dream of Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Junior, an ordained Christian minister--now we have 
turned full circle, and now we are starting to persecute and reward 
those who abroad persecute the very churches that made America the 
freest country--the only country from which people have fought and died 
for the liberty of others--the most generous and giving Nation in the 
history of the world, where more freedoms, liberties, and assets have 
been attained by individuals than in any country in the history of the 
world.
  It is exceptional, but we are losing our exceptionalism because we 
are refusing to stand up for the beliefs of Christians here and around 
the world.
  If we want to extend this little experiment in democracy, as one of 
the Founders said--if we want to acknowledge Ben Franklin's comment 
``it is a Republic if you can keep it,'' and we want to keep it--it is 
time to rise up, not through violence. Just stop rewarding those who 
persecute Christianity. Those who burn churches, those who kill 
Christians, quit rewarding them--quit providing them arms--because, if 
we don't, we will slip down the slide of history into the dustbin of 
history, and people will only be able to look back and say, ``What an 
amazing country that once was.''
  I am here in Congress because I believe we have the chance to salvage 
this great country and get back our international leadership we once 
had and stand for freedom of religion in the world and in America, but 
God help us if we don't.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________