[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13621]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            GENOCIDE IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to share two pictures showing the tomb 
of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq. The first shows Jonah's tomb as it 
looked for centuries prior to last week. The second shows the site 
after it was destroyed by ISIS last week. Thousands of years of 
Biblical cultural history were erased in a matter of moments by 
Islamist terrorists.
  This ancient site had once been the location of a church and then a 
mosque famous for its architectural beauty which stood there since the 
14th century. The mosque of the prophet Yunus--built around Jonah's 
tomb--honored a figure who is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
  Jonah, who was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of 
Nineveh, is the subject of a book in the Hebrew Tanakh--the Old 
Testament--and multiple passages in the Koran.
  While ISIS has targeted Christians for elimination in its destructive 
rampage through Syria and Iraq, this atrocity is an offense not just to 
Christians, but to all humanity. This is more than fundamentalism or 
extremism. It is nihilism. It is genocide. It is genocide of an entire 
people of faith in this region.
  The world should be outraged at the crime against our shared cultural 
heritage, including the Islam that ISIS claims to represent. ISIS has 
destroyed millennia of history by detonating an explosive charge and 
turning this ancient site of pilgrimage to rubble.
  However, it is not just Biblical sites and Christian churches that 
are targeted by ISIS extermination. It is exterminating the Christian 
people of this region. The Christian people of this region are being 
exterminated.
  I want to share another picture. Do you see this spray-painted symbol 
on the wall to the right of the gate? That is the Arabic word ``nun'' 
which stands for nasara, a pejorative name for Christians. They are 
singling out Christians. ISIS has been marking the homes of Christians 
to symbolize their ultimatum: convert to Islam or die.
  Similarly, ISIS has used the letter ``raa'' for rawafidh, a slur 
against Shiites that they also expelled from Mosul.
  This is the sixth time in a week that I have appeared on this floor 
to call attention to the genocide that is taking place right before our 
eyes. The media is starting to pay more attention, but where is the 
Obama administration?
  It has to make protecting this ancient community a priority. It needs 
to encourage the Kurds to do more of what they can to protect those 
fleeing ISIS and provide safe refuge. It needs to ensure that of the 
resources going to the region, that a portion should be guaranteed to 
help the Christian community. It needs to have the same courage as 
President Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell had when they 
called it genocide in Darfur because this is genocide.
  For the sake of these communities and for the sake of the ancient, 
tangible heritage that is being destroyed daily by ISIS and Iraq, 
President Obama must speak.
  President Reagan consistently made human rights and religious freedom 
a hallmark of American diplomacy. He famously described the U.S. 
Constitution as ``a covenant we have made not only with ourselves, but 
with all of mankind.'' He understood that the promises enshrined in 
that document transcended time and place.
  There is no more urgent time and place to speak out than now, given 
what is happening to Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq. 
We are seeing, during this Congress where everyone here is serving and 
during this administration, we are seeing the end of Christianity in 
Iraq, and soon, we will see the end of Christianity in the Middle East, 
where it all began.

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