[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13248-13249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                CHRISTIANITY IS BEING ERADICATED IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, another Sunday has come and gone without mass 
being said in Mosul.
  There is no doubt about it; religious cleansing is continuing to 
occur in Iraq. The churches have been seized and some turned into 
mosques. Every trace of Christianity is being eradicated in Iraq. The 
Christians' property has been seized, looted, and given to others.
  Canon Andrew White, the vicar of the only Anglican church in Baghdad, 
Iraq, recently stated, ``Things are so desperate, our people are 
disappearing. We have had our people massacred, their heads chopped 
off. Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed,'' he 
said, ``come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as 
though the end could be near.''
  Vicar White, continuing, said, ``The Christians are in grave danger. 
They are literally living in the desert and on the street. They have 
nowhere to go.''
  The question remains: What should the world be doing to help the 
Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq?
  The administration has taken a small step, although it needs to do 
much more. The President of the United States needs to speak out on 
this issue.

[[Page 13249]]

  This morning, after a 9-month vacancy, the White House announced the 
nomination of Rabbi David Saperstein to be the Ambassador-at-Large for 
International Religious Freedom. Rabbi Saperstein is well-respected on 
these matters and has been engaged on this issue for a long time. I 
welcome this nomination. It is a good nomination, and I ask the Senate 
to confirm Rabbi Saperstein quickly.
  On Friday, the House passed legislation that creates the position of 
Special Envoy for Religious Minorities in the Middle East and South 
Central Asia. This was bipartisan legislation that was introduced by 
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and myself. Our office worked closely with our 
former colleague, Senator Roy Blunt.
  I call on the President to sign this bill quickly and to fill this 
position as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence. We cannot 
afford to wait any longer. Christianity, as we now know it, is being 
wiped out before our very eyes in Iraq.

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