On the recordApril 28, 2016
Mr. President, April is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. As we remember all those who have lost their lives in the wave of terrorist violence sweeping the world, I call on my Senate colleagues to join the effort to make real the words ``never again'' by cosponsoring S. 2551, the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. Islamic extremists are waging religious war so severe that the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church came together, stating: Whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed. It is with pain that we call to mind the situation in Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East, and the massive exodus of Christians from the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have lived together with other religious communities since the time of the Apostles. We call upon the international community to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. In raising our voice in defense of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos, and terrorist violence.…