Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to read the following piece that was posted on nbcnews.com yesterday. The headline was: ``Has Last Christian Left Iraqi City of Mosul After 2,000 Years?'' Samer Kamil Yacub was alone when four Islamist militants carrying AK-47s arrived at his front door and ordered him to leave the city. The 70-year-old Christian had failed to comply with a decree issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS. Yacub's hometown of Mosul had boasted a Christian community for almost 2,000 years. But then the al Qaeda-inspired fighters who overran the city last month gave Christians an ultimatum. They could stay and pay a tax or convert to Islam--or be killed. Yacub, 70, was one of the few Christians remaining beyond last Saturday's noon deadline. He may have even been the last to leave alive. ``A fighter said, `I have orders to kill you now,''' Yacub said just hours after the Sunni extremists tried to force their way into his home at 11 a.m. on Monday. ``All of the people in my neighborhood were Muslim. They came to help me--about 20 people--at the door in front of my house. They tried to convince ISIS not to kill me.'' The rebels spared Yacub but threw him out of the city where he had spent his entire life. They also took his Iraqi ID card before informing him that elderly women would be given his house. Mr. Speaker, this is but one example of what is unfolding in Iraq right before our eyes. The end of Christianity, as we now know it, is taking place in Iraq.…”