According to reports by an investigative journalist at Yahoo News and by Nina Shea at National Review Online, the Obama Administration may move in the next few weeks to designate ISIS’s violence against Yazidis and others in Iraq as genocide; the genocide designation, however, will not be applied to Christians even though they have faced equal violence and persecution at the hands of ISIS.
Shea writes,
“Yazidis, according to the story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, are going to be officially recognized as genocide victims, and rightly so. Yet Christians, who are also among the most vulnerable religious minority groups that have been deliberately and mercilessly targeted for eradication by ISIS, are not. This is not an academic matter. A genocide designation would have significant policy implications for American efforts to restore property and lands taken from the minority groups and for offers of aid, asylum, and other protections to such victims. Worse, it would mean that, under the Genocide Convention, the United States and other governments would not be bound to act to suppress or even prevent the genocide of these Christians.”
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum writes that more than 800,000 people in Iraq’s Nineveh province were forced from their homes by ISIS last year; ISIS militants “kidnapped thousands, and killed hundreds, likely thousands, of people. In less than three months [ISIS] decimated millenia-old communities…Now almost no members of the minority groups [ISIS] attacked live in Nineveh province.”
This is significant, because the plains of Nineveh were once home to Iraqi Christians; in fact, Nineveh held one of the oldest Christian communities on earth. ISIS is systematically executing Christians it finds in Iraq and Syria. If that isn’t genocide, I do not know what is.
Americans continue to disagree about whether or not foreign refugees should enter the U.S., but let’s not overlook the obvious by failing to call the violence these refugees face what it is: Genocide. I think we can all agree the U.S. government ought to be honest with itself and with other nations about what ISIS is doing.
Below is information you can use to contact Arkansas’ two U.S. Senators and Arkansas’ Congressional delegates. Please send them a message politely asking them to ensure the federal government designates all ethnic and religious groups who are victims of ISIS violence as victims of genocide–including Christians.
U.S. Senator John Boozman
Little Rock Office:
1401 W. Capitol Ave., Plaza F
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 372-7153
Fax: (501) 372-7163
D.C. Office:
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4843
Fax: (202) 228-1371
Click Here to Email U.S. Senator Boozman
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton
Little Rock Office:
11809 Hinson Road
Suite 100
Little Rock, AR 72212
Mailing Address:
PO Box 25216
Little Rock, AR 72221
Phone: (501) 223-9081
Fax: (501) 223-9105
D.C. Office:
124 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Click Here to Email U.S. Senator Cotton
U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford (AR District 1)
Jonesboro Office:
2400 Highland Drive, Suite 300
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Phone: (870) 203-0540
Fax: (870) 203-0542
D.C. Office:
1711 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4076
Fax: (202) 225-5602
Click Here to Email Congressman Crawford
U.S. Congressman French Hill (AR District 2)
Little Rock Office:
1501 N. University Ave.
Suite 150
Little Rock, AR 72207
Phone: (501) 324-5941
Fax: (501) 324-6029
D.C. Office:
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2506
Fax: (202) 225-5903
Click Here to Email U.S. Congressman Hill
U.S. Congressman Steve Womack (AR District 3)
Rogers Office:
3333 Pinnacle Hills, Suite 120
Rogers, Arkansas 72758
Phone: (479) 464-0446
Fax: (479) 464-0063
D.C. Office:
1119 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4301
Fax: (202) 225-5713
Click Here to Email U.S. Congressman Womack
U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR District 4)
Hot Springs Office:
101 Reserve St.
Suite 200
Hot Springs, AR 71901
Phone: (501) 609-9796
Fax: (501) 609-9887
D.C. Office:
130 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3772
Fax: (202) 225-1314
