The passage by unanimous consent of the resolution comes two weeks before a deadline for Secretary of State John Kerry to state the administration’s stance on the matter, as required by the omnibus spending bill passed last December. Kerry has until March 17 to declare whether “the persecution of, including attacks against, Christians and people of other religions in the Middle East by violent Islamic extremists” constitutes genocide. The resolution passed Wednesday, as amended, expresses the sense of Congress that “all governments, including the United States … should call ISIL atrocities by their rightful names: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
Holding crosses painted in the colors of the Syrian opposition flag, Syrian Christians protest persecution in their homeland
The resolution, introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Rep Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) last September, recognizes that “Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia.” It cites the words of Pope Francis in July that Middle Eastern Christians are facing genocide: “In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide – and I stress the word genocide – is taking place, and it must end.”
It also cites a March 2015 report of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights which found that “[e]thnic and religious groups targeted by ISIL include Yezidis, Christians, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka‘e, Kurds and Shi’a” and that “
t is reasonable to conclude that some of the incidents [in Iraq in 2014–2015] … may constitute genocide.” “ISIS commits mass murder, beheadings, crucifixions, rape, torture, enslavement, and the kidnaping of children, among other atrocities,” House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said in a statement on the resolution’s passage. “ISIS has said it will not allow the continued existence of the Yezidi. And zero indigenous Christian communities remain in areas under ISIS control,” he said.
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