On the recordJuly 29, 2014
As I have said several times in recent weeks, I want to bring attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Any person watching the news for the last several months will have seen an increasingly violent, chaotic, and unpredictable environment. The Middle East, and Iraq in particular, are not stable. This creates an enormous problem for Christians in the region. Chaldean Christians in Michigan and in my district have repeatedly raised the issue of ongoing persecution of Christians in Iraq. Just recently, the last remaining Christians were forced to flee. ISIS has taken the city. For the first time in well over a thousand years, Sunday mass is no longer being said. My colleague, friend, and mentor, Representative Frank Wolf, has characterized the situation facing Christians in Iraq as genocide. That analysis is about as accurate as it can get. Christians have been targeted and killed for their faith. What we are seeing is genocide, the eradication of a specific group of people, namely, Christians. ISIS is trying to wipe the face of Christianity from Iraq. Not only have they killed and pushed Christians out of territory that they control, they are also destroying the physical traces of Christianity. Churches, monasteries, and religious sites are being destroyed and desecrated. Even Jonah's tomb has been destroyed. And the shrine of the Prophet Seth has been blown up.…
