Rep. Wolf fails to mention the role played by the United States in supporting the destruction of Christian religious sites in Iraq

ISIS killing spree in Iraq. Destroying religious sites is tragic but pails in comparison to the slaughter of innocent Christians in Iraq by US backed ISIS rebels.

On July 30, 2014 Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia asked for and was granted permission to address the United StatesHouse of Representatives for five minutes regarding the situation in Iraq:

“Mr. Speaker, I want to share two pictures showing the tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq. The first shows Jonah’s tomb as it looked for centuries prior to last week. The second shows the site after it was destroyed by ISIS last week. Thousands of years of Biblical cultural history were erased in a matter of moments by Islamist terrorists.

This ancient site had once been the location of a church and then a mosque famous for its architectural beauty which stood there since the 14th century. The mosque of the prophet Yunus–built around Jonah’s tomb–honored a figure who is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Jonah, who was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, is the subject of abook in the Hebrew Tanakh–the Old Testament–and multiple passages in the Koran.

While ISIS has targeted Christians for elimination in its destructive rampage through Syria and Iraq, this atrocity is an offense not just to Christians, but to all humanity. This is more than fundamentalism or extremism. It is nihilism. It is genocide. It is genocide of an entire people of faith in this region.

The world should be outraged at the crime against our shared cultural heritage, including the Islam that ISIS claims to represent. ISIS has destroyed millennia of history by detonating an explosive charge and turning this ancient site of pilgrimage to rubble.

However, it is not just Biblical sites and Christian churches that are targeted by ISIS extermination. It is exterminating the Christian people of this region. The Christian people of this region are being exterminated.

I want to share another picture. Do you see this spray-painted symbol on the wall to the right of the gate? That is the Arabic word “nun” which stands for nasara, a pejorative name for Christians. They are singling out Christians. ISIS has been marking the homes of Christians to symbolize their ultimatum: convert to Islam or die.

Similarly, ISIS has used the letter “raa” for rawafidh, a slur against Shiites that they also expelled from Mosul.

This is the sixth time in a week that I have appeared on this floor to call attention to the genocide that is taking place right before our eyes. The media is starting to pay more attention, but where is the Obama administration?

It has to make protecting this ancient community a priority. It needs to encourage the Kurds to do more of what they can to protect those fleeing ISIS and provide safe refuge. It needs to ensure that of the resources going to the region, that a portion should be guaranteed to help the Christian community. It needs to have the same courage as President Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell had when they called it genocide in Darfur because this is genocide.

For the sake of these communities and for the sake of the ancient, tangible heritage that is being destroyed daily by ISIS and Iraq, President Obama must speak.

President Reagan consistently made human rights and religious freedom a hallmark of American diplomacy. He famously described the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind.” He understood that the promises enshrined in that document transcended time and place.

There is no more urgent time and place to speak out than now, given what is happening to Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq. We are seeing, during this Congress where everyone here is serving and during this administration, we are seeing the end of Christianity in Iraq, and soon, we will see the end of Christianity in the Middle East, where it all began”, said Wolf.

Source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov/

Note: Congressman Wolf sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where he is the chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee. He also serves on the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development and State and Foreign Operationssubcommittees. In addition, he is the co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan organization which works to raise awareness about international human rights issues.

What very curious to me in all this is why Rep. Wolf fails to mention the role played by the United States in supporting the genocide of Christians in Iraq? Doesn’t he understand we created that monster ISIS?

ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

See report: Has the Obama administration ever armed ISIS with lethal weapons? Inquiring minds would like to know! https://groundreport.com/has-the-obama-administration-ever-armed-isis-with-lethal-weapons-inquiring-minds-would-like-to-know/

See video: US was responsible for training ISIS in Jordan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuo7-U7mOo