Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2016 / 16:43 pm
The U.S. must not ignore the Islamic State's genocide of Christians. That is the position of a petition drive and television campaign seeking to persuade Secretary of State John Kerry.
"Christians in Iraq and Syria have suffered injustice after injustice by being kidnapped, killed, having their homes and churches confiscated or destroyed, and being forced to flee for their lives," Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, said Feb. 25. "Because of hit squads, they fear to enter U.N. refugee camps and, as a result, are then often excluded from immigration to the West."
He said that these Christians "deserve to have the U.S. State Department call what has happened to them by its rightful name: genocide."
By law, the State Department must choose how to designate the atrocities by March 17, according to the Knights of Columbus. Official recognition of genocide would have consequences for U.S. foreign policy, including refugee resettlement policy.