[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13380]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     HAS LAST CHRISTIAN LEFT IRAQI CITY OF MOSUL AFTER 2,000 YEARS?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to read the following piece that was 
posted on nbcnews.com yesterday. The headline was: ``Has Last Christian 
Left Iraqi City of Mosul After 2,000 Years?''

       Samer Kamil Yacub was alone when four Islamist militants 
     carrying AK-47s arrived at his front door and ordered him to 
     leave the city. The 70-year-old Christian had failed to 
     comply with a decree issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and 
     Syria, ISIS.
       Yacub's hometown of Mosul had boasted a Christian community 
     for almost 2,000 years. But then the al Qaeda-inspired 
     fighters who overran the city last month gave Christians an 
     ultimatum. They could stay and pay a tax or convert to 
     Islam--or be killed.
       Yacub, 70, was one of the few Christians remaining beyond 
     last Saturday's noon deadline. He may have even been the last 
     to leave alive. ``A fighter said, `I have orders to kill you 
     now,''' Yacub said just hours after the Sunni extremists 
     tried to force their way into his home at 11 a.m. on Monday. 
     ``All of the people in my neighborhood were Muslim. They came 
     to help me--about 20 people--at the door in front of my 
     house. They tried to convince ISIS not to kill me.''

  The rebels spared Yacub but threw him out of the city where he had 
spent his entire life. They also took his Iraqi ID card before 
informing him that elderly women would be given his house.
  Mr. Speaker, this is but one example of what is unfolding in Iraq 
right before our eyes. The end of Christianity, as we now know it, is 
taking place in Iraq. This is the fifth time I have come to the floor 
over the last week to try to raise awareness of what is happening, to 
talk about the genocide.
  It is genocide that is taking place. Yes, genocide: the systematic 
extermination of a people of faith by violent extremists seizing power 
in a region. Churches and monasteries have been seized. Many of them 
have been burned down.
  Last week, it was widely reported that ISIS had blown up the tomb of 
the prophet Jonah.
  Christians, threatened with their lives if they do not leave the 
region, are being robbed as they leave a land they have lived on for 
more than 2,000 years.
  With the exception of Israel, the Bible contains more references to 
the cities, regions, and nations of ancient Iraq than any other 
country. The patriarch Abraham lived in the city of Ur. Isaac's bride, 
Rebekah, came from northwest Iraq. Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq, and 
his sons--the 12 tribes of Israel--were born in northwest Iraq. The 
events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq, as did the account of 
Daniel in the lion's den.
  Many of Iraqi's Christians still speak Aramaic, the language of 
Jesus. The Pope has spoken out. His Beatitude Ignatius Ephrem Joseph 
III Younan, the overseer of Syriac Catholics around the globe, has 
spoken out.

                              {time}  1030

  His Grace Bishop Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox 
Church in the United Kingdom, has spoken out. Archbishop Justin Welby, 
the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's 80 million 
Anglicans, has spoken out. Russell Moore, a key leader in the Southern 
Baptist Convention, has spoken out.
  Despite these Christian leaders speaking out about the systematic 
extermination of Christians in Iraq, the silence in this town, in 
Washington, is deafening. Does Washington even care? Where is the Obama 
administration? The President has failed. Where is the Congress? The 
Congress has failed.
  Time is running out. The Christians and other religious minorities in 
Iraq are being targeted for extinction. They need our help. Literally, 
during our time, we will see the end of Christianity in the place it 
began.

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