[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    GENOCIDE OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Hawaii (Ms. Gabbard) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, there were two votes that occurred earlier 
this week on House Concurrent Resolution 75 and House Concurrent 
Resolution 121, which deal with very important and complex issues that 
I would like to talk about this morning.
  I cosponsored and voted for House Concurrent Resolution 75 because of 
my grave concern about the genocide occurring against Christians, 
Alawites, Shiites, Druze, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in 
Syria.
  However, I was extremely disappointed by amendment language that was 
later added to this resolution that provides cover or an excuse for 
ISIS and other terrorist organizations committing this genocide.
  Specifically, the language I object to is the following: ``The 
protracted Syrian civil war and the indiscriminate violence of the 
Assad regime have contributed to the growth of ISIL and will continue 
to do so as long as this conflict continues.''
  I fully reject this amendment to the resolution because it gives 
moral legitimacy to the actions of ISIS, al Qaeda, and others who are 
committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious 
minorities in Syria.
  This amendment is an obvious attempt to make ISIS look like their 
cause is legitimate. This is absolutely unacceptable and undermines the 
very heart and intent of this resolution.
  This is very unfortunate because the problem of the genocide against 
Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Syria is very 
serious.
  In fact, the main area in Syria where Christians and other religious 
minorities have any protection today from being slaughtered and where 
they can practice their religious faith without fear of prosecution is 
in the territory that is still controlled by the Syrian Government of 
Assad.
  The reality is that the language added to this resolution, coupled 
with its sister resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 121, is really 
aimed at justifying the overthrow of Assad, the result of which would 
be a complete assault and elimination of Christians and other religious 
minorities in Syria.
  The fact that this resolution, which was originally introduced to 
increase protection for Christians, Yazidis and other religious 
minorities, has now been hijacked so that it becomes a vehicle to 
increase the likelihood of an even greater genocide against those 
religious minorities is an absolute disgrace.
  The reality is that, if the Assad regime is overthrown tomorrow, 
every Christian, every Yazidi, and every other religious minority and 
ethnic minority in Syria will be in even greater danger than ever 
before from the genocide being perpetrated by ISIS, al Qaeda, and 
others who are slaughtering them.
  This resolution is no longer a sincere effort to protect religious 
minorities. It has instead become a resolution to give more legitimacy 
to ISIS and al Qaeda's genocidal activities and would bring about an 
even greater genocide of those religious minorities by eliminating the 
only area where they now have refuge.

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