ICC Note: Christians from the Middle East were shocked to learn that while the Obama administration was preparing to recognize the persecution of Yazidi’s as a Genocide it was not going to do the same for Christians. The horrific reality of what ISIS has done to these communities far surpasses the established criteria for genocide, yet it may not be granted that status.

12/10/2015 Middle East (Huffington Post) – Two weeks ago, investigative journalist Michael Isikoff leaked information that the Obama administration is concerned with recognizing the horrifying atrocities against the Yazidi community in Iraq as genocide. He also revealed that the administration was going to exclude Christians from the same genocide resolution. This has upset many people across the world.

Fifty-one genocide scholars have said that the crimes committed against Christians and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria meets even the strictest definition of genocide.

I am not one of those experts, but for a week, I have been speaking to policymakers and experts throughout the world. Last week in Stockholm, the European parliamentarian, Lars Adaktusson (Swedish Christian Democrats), arranged a seminar about a resolution that he is drafting in the European Parliament of which language gives the victims of this genocide justice.

Before the seminar, I spoke to the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Mor Aphrem Karim II and he said:

“To not call it a genocide would be to double persecute the victims of monstrous behavior of the perpetrators, the terrorist group ISIS. Atrocities that escalated to a level not seen before in modern history. When we claim it’s a genocide, we do it based on the criteria of the convention and we have no doubt that Pope Francis is right about his conclusion when he also calls it a genocide.”

Sabah Elia was an attendee of the seminar. 42 of her relatives were abducted by ISIS in February of this year. Her statement, which included pictures of 15 kidnapped children celebrating a birth day party, left no eye dry. She begged the world to help her get those children back.

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