The European Union (EU) has recognized the mass slaughter of Christians at the hands of the barbaric Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) as genocide, but the Obama administration has yet to offer the same designation to the religious minority group.
“It is very important to call it genocide, it’s important because it is the truth,” said Nina Shea with Freedom House, a group that has been documenting ISIS atrocities.
Shea is urging the Obama administration to follow the EU’s example and label the crimes against Christians in the Middle East as “genocide.”
“There’s a reluctance on the part of the administration to call it genocide against Christians,” she proclaimed. “They have told us privately that they will call it genocide against Yazidis but not Christians.”
“If we take the solemn vow of ‘never again’ as we have since the Jewish Holocaust under the Nazis, we have to call it as such for the Christians,” Shea added.
President Obama has indicated that his administration will recognize what ISIS is perpetrating against the ethnic/religious minority known as Yazidis in Iraq and Syria as genocide.
However, reports have indicated that the White House may not offer this same protection to Christians.
Members of the European Parliament have declared that the ethnic/religious cleansing of Christians and other religious minorities by ISIS has features of genocide, reports Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) News.
In a historic move, European MPs passed a resolution this week designating the savagery by ISIS as “crimes against humanity” and calling for a probe into their human rights violations.
The barbaric actions by ISIS against Christians and other religious minority in Syria and Iraq amount to “war crimes” and “genocide,” said the European lawmakers, notes CBN News.
In the resolution, European lawmakers say those who intentionally carry out atrocities against religious or ethnic minorities must be charged with crimes against humanity.
“The European Parliament resolution calls on the International Criminal Court to begin investigating violations by ISIS against Christians, Yazidis, and religious minorities,” points out CBN News.
There is no sign of Christian life right now in the territory controlled by ISIS, where strict Islamic laws (sharia) has been imposed. All the Christians have either been executed or forced out of their homes.
The number of Christians has reportedly plummeted from 1.2 million to less than 500,000 in Syria alone.
In neighboring Iraq, nearly two-thirds of the 1.5 million adherents to the Christian faith there have either been killed or forced to abandon their homes.
Shea noted that “the Yazidis, thousands of them, their women are now sex slaves.”
Retired U.S. Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, head of Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE) and an advisor to the Christian Assyrian Army fighting ISIS, believes President Obama’s recognition of the Yazidi genocide only is being used to benefit the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“It now seems clear — They are doing so in order to keep the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] from failing financially, more than doing so for the need to save the Yazidis and Assyrians who have been destroyed by ISIS,” said Sangari, a decorated Iraq war veteran who served 20 years in the U.S. Army, in a post on the NEC-SE website.
“KRG has had financial issues, which finally exploded into protests across multiple provinces and cities of the KRG starting last week,” he added.
The Obama administration’s reluctance to recognize the Christian genocide by ISIS is rooted in a desperate attempt to avoid the embarrassment of yet another failed foreign policy decision, argues the retired Assyrian-American lieutenant colonel.
“It is apparent that the current administration is desperate to ensure that they do not fail in another foreign policy decision, which had them blindly supporting the current KRG leaders at the detriment of the Yazidis, Assyrians, and the Kurds who are being played by a few power brokers in the land,” explained Sangari. “They are willing to monetize the Yazidi genocide and marginalize the Assyrian genocide on behalf of the KRG lobby, which is very active through financial support in this year’s presidential election in the United States.”
“Unfortunately, for most Americans who are against the eradication of the Yazidi and Assyrians in their historical homelands, the money being used to suppress these ethnicities aspirations in the region is U.S. taxpayer funds which comes back into the hands of the politicians in DC under the cloak of KRG lobbying groups,” he added.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.