[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION WORLDWIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, soon Pope Francis will deliver a 
historical address to this Congress. During this year, he has addressed 
a form of genocide happening in the world.
  Globally, Christians are being imprisoned, tortured, and killed 
because they are Christians. In 2013, Christians faced persecution in 
102 out of 190-plus countries. In Iran, American Christian pastor Saeed 
Abedini has been languishing in jail for the last 2\1/2\ years 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. There, 
Christians are often sent to prison camps for possession of Bibles, 
sometimes even executed because they are Christians. The State 
Department estimates that 80,000 to 120,000 North Koreans are 
imprisoned in labor camps because of their religious beliefs. In 
November of 2013, 80 North Korean Christians were reportedly executed 
for possession of Bibles and possessing South Korean religious films.
  In Pakistan, in one city, Christian churches have been bombed. A 14-
year-old Christian boy was beaten and set on fire because he was a 
Christian. Burns now cover 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 others severely damaged. 
Thousands of Coptic Christians have fled Egypt to other countries.
  In Libya, ISIS captured and beheaded 21 people because they were 
Christians. When the victims' families tried to build a church in their 
honor, they were attacked by a Muslim mob and beaten.
  It is not just Assad's thugs in Syria killing Christians; religious 
cleansing takes place in other places. In Syria, militants expelled 90 
percent of the Christians in the city of Homs. Patriarch Gregorios III 
of Antioch says, out of a population of 1.75 million, 450,000 Syrian 
Christians have fled in fear.
  Mr. Speaker, no Christian anywhere on Earth should have to leave 
their homeland because of their faith.
  In Iraq, where Christians have been calling home since the time of 
Christ, the story is just as dark. Its Christian population has almost 
entirely disappeared--dropping 90 percent since the first gulf war. The 
number of churches has declined from 300 in 2003 to 57.
  In Africa, the terrorist group al Shabaab attacked a university in 
Kenya, going door-to-door to find and execute Christians. Al Shabaab 
attacked a shopping mall in Kenya in 2013 and took shoppers captive. 
One of them was Joshua Hakim. When Joshua got close to his attackers, 
he showed them his ID, and he covered up his Christian name with his 
thumb. ``They told me to go,'' Joshua recalled later. ``Then another 
man came forward, and they said, what is the name of Muhammad's 
mother?'' The individual couldn't answer; so they shot him.
  Mr. Speaker, history tells us that the persecution of Christians has 
been going on since the day Stephen was stoned for his faith in Acts 7.
  As a country, the United States needs to reexamine its relationship 
with countries and states that persecute or tolerate the persecution of 
Christians. Countries should get no U.S. foreign aid until they start 
protecting Christians instead of persecuting them. And let's call 
groups like ISIS what they truly are: a radical and dangerous Islamic 
extremist terrorist group.
  Religious liberty is a basic civil right, a humanitarian right, and 
an inalienable right. Since Pilgrims came to America to escape 
religious persecution in their homeland, our Nation has stood as a 
bright beacon to the world for religious freedom for everyone--Jews, 
Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and others.
  It is written in the Good Book that a man was traveling on the 
Jericho road and fell among robbers. The man was beaten, his property 
was stolen, and he was left for dead. Other people traveled down the 
same road, saw him in the ditch, but passed on by him on the other side 
of the road. They went their own way. They did nothing.
  The United States cannot be silent and walk on the other side of the 
road while Christians worldwide are beaten, beheaded, and brutalized 
because they are Christians. We must be that beacon that shines in 
proud protection of religious freedom for all--including Christians.
  And that is just the way it is.

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