By CruxMark Zimmermann
With the U.S. Capitol and its dome as a dramatic backdrop, members of Congress and religious leaders held an outdoor press conference June 7 to praise the passage of a bill in the House of Representatives that would provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Christians and members of other religious minorities who have been victims of genocide by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and hold the perpetrators accountable.
“For us to do this work shows the best of America,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-California), the bill’s lead co-sponsor.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey)
sponsored House Resolution 390, which is titled the “Iraq and Syria
Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act of 2017.”
The bill passed the House by a unanimous voice vote on June 6.
Smith and the other speakers urged
the Senate to swiftly pass the measure so it can be signed into law by
President Donald Trump, who has offered public support for assisting
persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East.
“Time is of the essence. They need
this help, and they need it now,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, the
leader of the Knights of Columbus (Crux’s principal partner), who also spoke at the press conference.
Addressing the media, Smith - a
member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs who in recent years has
chaired nine congressional hearings focusing on the atrocities in Iraq
and Syria - said that the bill would provide vital humanitarian
assistance to church-based relief organizations, like the Chaldean
Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in Iraq, which has been providing food,
shelter and medicine to a flood of Iraqi Christians fleeing ISIS
persecution.
“Right now, they’re not getting so
much as a dime from the U.S. government,” he said, charging that the
State Department so far has prohibited that assistance from going to
religious groups.
The New Jersey congressman said that
he and staff members visited Erbil this past December and witnessed the
range of assistance that archdiocese was providing to 6,000 displaced
people at a church-run camp, and “I was shocked we (the United States)
were not supplying assistance to these men, women and families.”
Smith said that the bill also
provides a mechanism for legal tribunals to be set up and evidence to be
gathered, so that the perpetrators in Iraq and Syria can be held
accountable and brought to justice for acts of genocide, crimes against
humanity and war crimes, just as earlier courts did after atrocities in
Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia.
“It’s time we stepped up to the plate,” said Smith. “…There is an emergency here.”
Eshoo said the measure if enacted
“will make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people
who’ve been persecuted by ISIS - Christians, Yazidis and other
minorities in the Middle East.”
She added, “There’s been enormous
suffering,” and noted that people fled for their lives from their homes,
and now those traumatized people “want their lives to go on, especially
for the children.”
Noting that the Congress a year
earlier “did something historic” for only the third time in that
legislative body’s history formally declaring that a genocide was taking
place, she added that legislators also understood “we had more work to
do.”
Eshoo said the U.S. government’s
working with faith groups is “a pillar of our democracy,” and the bill
now being considered by the Senate could open up vital streams of
humanitarian assistance to faith groups like the Archdiocese of Erbil
who are on the ground providing help to members of religious minorities
fleeing ISIS.
The bill does not allocate new
funding, which Congress has already approved for humanitarian assistance
in the region, said Smith, who said it would provide help and hope to
suffering members of religious minorities in Iraq and Syria who have
been “left out and left behind.”
That U.S. aid would augment support
now being provided by groups like the Knights of Columbus, which since
2014 has donated more than $12 million for Christian refugee relief to
communities, which according to the Knights’ website, are “too often
ignored by direct U.N. or U.S. government assistance.”
The Knights have recently launched an
emergency relief campaign and have pledged to match donations received
by July 1 up to $1 million, with all money raised going to assist with
food programs for Christian refugees in Iraq. (Donations can be made at
ChristiansatRisk.org or by calling 1-800-694-5713.)
Addressing the press conference, the
Knights’ leader Anderson said that last year with the declaration
acknowledging genocide being perpetrated by ISIS against Christians and
other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, “Congress had the courage
to confront reality,” and with its passage of H.R. 390, legislators
demonstrated “the courage to change reality.”
Anderson praised the bill’s broad
bipartisan support in a Congress known for its political divisions - the
measure had 47 Republican and Democratic cosponsors. That support
demonstrated that on this issue, “the country is united,” Anderson said,
adding that the measure offers proof that “the terrorists will not
win.”
In addition to the Knights, the bill
was also supported by the United States Conference of Bishops and Aid to
the Church in Need USA; and by other groups including the Family
Research Council, In Defense of Christians, the Community of
Sant’Egidio, the Heritage Foundation, the Religious Freedom Institute
and Genocide Watch.
Noting the living legacy of Iraqi
Christians whose history goes back to apostolic times, Anderson said,
“From a Christian standpoint, these are people who still pray in the
language of Jesus. They have every right to survive.”
Like other speakers, he said that
beyond humanitarian assistance, the region’s Christians deserved the
freedom to live and practice their faith without fear of persecution or
legal hurdles. “It’s a human rights issue,” he said.
That point was underscored by another
speaker at the press conference, Bishop Bawai Soro, the vicar general
of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle in El Cajon,
California.
That diocese includes more than
65,000 Catholics in the western United States of Chaldean or Assyrian
ancestry who immigrated from the Middle East, especially from Iraq and
Iran.
“It is our dream that Christians will
not be second-class citizens in their homeland,” he said, emphasizing
the need for them to have religious freedom and equal political rights
and economic opportunities.
Humanitarian assistance and
constitutional guarantees for religious minorities go hand-in-hand in
securing a better future for them, he added.
The Chaldean bishop said that the situation remains “very fragile” for Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Christians in Iraq throughout history
have been at the forefront in providing health care and educational
outreach in that region and have been peacemakers and catalysts for
reform, Soro said, adding that Iraq’s Christians can play a similar role
for Iraq’s future, working together as they have in the past with its
many religious and cultural groups to bring unity to their country.
He thanked the members of the House
for working together in a bipartisan fashion on the genocide emergency
relief and accountability act.
Another speaker at the press
conference, Haider Elias, the president of Yazda, a global Yazidi
organization, said the legislation was critically important for the
future of Yazidis and Christians in the region.
“We urge the Senate to expedite it
and pass it. Yazidis and Christians are in dire need of assistance to
survive as religious minorities in the region,” he said.
Noting the human cost of the ISIS
genocide, Elias - whose brother and several extended family members were
killed by the terrorist group - said captured male Yazidis are
separated to be killed, male children are taken away to be
indoctrinated, and women face rape and forced marriages.
Holding the perpetrators of genocide
accountable for their crimes is vital, “so religious minorities can
finally witness justice has been served,” he said.
After the press conference, the Chaldean bishop told Crux
how he had witnessed Christians in Iraq who continue to go to Mass
faithfully in tents, in fields, in newly constructed worship spaces, or
by riding buses to the cathedral. Describing the faith of the suffering
displaced people, and of the church workers assisting them, he said they
reflect “the face of Christ.”
“Suffering in Iraqi Christianity is
an ongoing phenomenon. My grandparents suffered during World War I,”
said Soro, who added, “I see history repeating itself.”
But the bishop said he still has hope for the present and future of Iraq’s Christians.
- “I believe this generation will preserve the faith and hand it on to their children and grandchildren,” he said. “I have hope, because the Lord that they believe in promised he would be with them through the ages, especially as they go through suffering.”