President Obama and his State Department have until next Thursday, March 17 to face reality and issue a formal affirmation that ISIS is actually committing genocide against Christians.
It should be a no-brainer right? But I’m giving them even odds. Why? Because the O’Ministration’s track record on religious persecution is abysmal!
Ever since he took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Mr. Obama has doggedly refused to acknowledge the Christian genocide occurring in North Africa and the Middle East. On my little blog alone I’ve reported on this ongoing tragedy more times than I can count. [Just do a site-search for “Christian persecution” or “Latest Dispatch from the War on Christendom”; dozens of posts]
The bombings-killings-destruction-displacement really reached a crisis level three years ago – well before ISIS ever came on the scene. And the oppression has only gotten worse in the intervening years. My post “Who will hear their cries?” (Oct. 2013) referenced an excellent Spectator article, The war on Christians; The global persecution of churchgoers is the unreported catastrophe of our time, which focused on the mainstream media’s indifference ~
Imagine if correspondents in late 1944 had reported the Battle of the Bulge, but without explaining that it was a turning point in the second world war. Or what if finance reporters had told the story of the AIG meltdown in 2008 without adding that it raised questions about derivatives and sub-prime mortgages that could augur a vast financial implosion?
Most people would say that journalists had failed to provide the proper context to understand the news. Yet that’s routinely what media outlets do when it comes to outbreaks of anti-Christian persecution around the world, which is why the global war on Christians remains the greatest story never told of the early 21st century.[…]
According to the Pew Forum, between 2006 and 2010 Christians faced some form of discrimination, either de jure or de facto, in a staggering total of 139 nations, which is almost three-quarters of all the countries on earth. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed in what the centre calls a ‘situation of witness’ each year for the past decade. That works out to 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour, seven days a week and 365 days a year, for reasons related to their faith.
Almost three years after those words were written, this crisis is now obvious to anyone not living under a rock. Yet while all these people are suffering, dying and being displaced, the Obama Administration has selectively, and one might even say deliberately, ignored the ongoing tragedy.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to do that though. Last month even the generally feckless EU formally declared that the ISIS persecution has reached the level of genocide ~
The European Parliament (Feb. 4, 2016) has overwhelmingly passed a resolution referring to the Islamic State (ISIS)’s killing of religious minorities under its control as “genocide” in the Middle East […]
The parliament clearly “[e]xpresse[d] its view … that the so-called ‘ISIS/Daesh’ is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis … and that this therefore entails action under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (emphasis added).
On this point, the European Parliament finds support in the International Court of Justice ruling between Bosnia and Serbia regarding application of the Genocide Convention—in which the court noted that the Genocide Convention binds parties with a clear, positive, independent obligation to prevent genocide.
The reason for the current urgency on this issue is that a formal declaration of genocide is tied to the approval of last December’s omnibus spending bill; March 17th is the signing deadline. Just last week the the House managed to pass a bipartisan resolution ~
… declaring that atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) “against Christians, Yezidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
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.
As usual of course, the O’Ministration is doing what they do best: obfuscate ~
Kerry told lawmakers last week that he was having “additional evaluation” done to help him determine whether the murder of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East should be declared “genocide.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the word genocide “involves a very specific legal determination that has, at this point, not been reached.”
Pathetic.
Title 18 section 1091 of the U.S. Code defines “Genocide” thusly ~
Specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such” which “kills members of that group; causes serious bodily injury to members of that group; causes the permanent impairment of the mental faculties of members of the group through drugs, torture, or similar techniques; subjects the group to conditions of life that are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part; imposes measures intended to prevent births within the group; or transfers by force children of the group to another group.
No amount of dodging or equivocating by the White House can whitewash the horrific reality of Christian genocide in the Middle East. It clearly meets the above parameters.
Let’s challenge these genocide deniers with the truth! Please go to the ACLJ website and sign this petition ➡ Recognize the Genocide and Protect Christians.
In Defense of Christians also has a petition ➡ StoptheChristianGenocide.org
Let’s push President Obama to actually do the right thing for a change!
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Related:
Heck, even Prince Charles was pleading the case of Middle East Christians a year and ½ ago ~ A “royal” call to end Christian persecution
Obama’s Selective Foreign Intervention ~ Egyptian Copts were demonstrating in D.C. last year. Their rallying cry: “Obama, Obama, did you see? Christian blood in the sea.”
Genocide: Christians Pay the Price for Inaction and Apathy The ACLJ () is tirelessly leading the charge on this issue. This article provides some background on the historical application of the term “genocide” as well as explaining the significance of the designation ~
Designating the atrocities as genocide is an important step to unlocking a robust tool kit of options for both preventing further genocide and punishing the perpetrators of genocide. Under law, the designation would legally obligate the United States to “prevent and punish.” We should not fear this legal obligation; instead we should be a nation that leads by example.
Designating the atrocities in Syria and Iraq as genocide does not equate to a legal obligation for military intervention, though often prevention does require some sort of military force. Potential actions include but are not limited to the United States taking steps to have the U.N. Security Council designate the atrocities as genocide, rallying support for troops in the United Nations and other countries to protect the innocent, threatening prosecution of perpetrators through international tribunals, using intelligence assets to block recruitment tools and calls to violence over the Internet and radio waves, freezing foreign assets of perpetrators, and imposing travel bans for the perpetrator and supporters of the Islamic State.
The designation also allows the United States to bring an action for intervention before the U.N. Security Council, which in return can authorize use of military force and other diplomatic, humanitarian, and strategic measure to address the crisis.
ISIS and Christian Genocide ~ Media malpractice ~
On March 4, the Associated Press reported, “Gunmen in southern Yemen on Friday stormed a retirement home run by a charity established by Mother Teresa, killing 16 people, including four Catholic nuns.” Network coverage? Zero on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and Fox. At least The New York Times offered a story, although The Washington Post could only offer 94 words.
The reluctance by the Obama administration is most likely based on obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Travis Weber, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, said.
“If they don’t think there is enough evidence of genocide against Christians and Yazidis, I’m not sure what they’re waiting for,” Weber told TheBlaze. “This is based on a political fear. There is moral and legal weight behind calling it genocide. Under the treaty, parties must prevent and punish genocide. This is the reason for the Clinton administration’s reluctance to act in Rwanda.”
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