US Christians key to ending US inaction on Christian genocide

Amid the Hutu-led government’s mass slaughter of a half-million Tutsis, the United States had an urgent warning to its diplomats in Rwanda.

“Be careful,” the U.S. State Department advised in a May 1994 memo, “Genocide finding could commit USG (United States Government) to actually ‘do something’.”

{mosads}Two decades later, our government is once again avoiding the g-word for fear it might force us to actually do something – this time about the Islamic State’s systematic killings of Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq. Over the past two years, ISIS has stormed through Iraqi towns and Syrian cities executing, raping and enslaving anyone who refuses to comply with their Islamo-fascist rule. 

Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a 21-year old Iraqi woman who was enslaved by ISIS, recently shared her story of survival with the United Nations Security Council in an effort to convince the international community to intervene. “That night, he beat me up, forced me to undress, and put me in a room with six militants,” she said of her brutal rape and enslavement by Daesh fighters. “They continued to commit crimes to my body until I became unconscious.”

The White House, according to published reports, will soon label these attacks on Yazidis as acts of genocide. Yet, inexplicably, the Obama administration is expected to omit Christians from the list. 

Christian refugees fleeing ISIS – often targets of violence by fellow refugees – are arguably most in need of protection. In one case, a dozen Christian refugees fleeing Libya were thrown overboard by Muslim migrants.  This persistent violence has effectively driven almost all Christians out of refugee camps organized by the United Nations. 

Not only are Christians left out of refugee camps; they are also blocked from safely seeking asylum in other countries. Since the U.S. State Department selects refugees from United Nation refugee lists, Christian exclusion from refugee camps effectively blocks their entry into the United States. Of 2,100 Syrian refugees resettled in the United States, just 34 are Christians. 

The debate over semantics may seem trivial, or even secondary to a discussion about our response to these atrocities. Yet, genocide scholars are emphatic that the word is a prerequisite to action.   

“Studies by genocide scholars have shown that calling genocide by its proper name, rather than using euphemisms like ‘ethnic cleansing’ or weaker terms like ‘crimes against humanity,’ increases the probability of forceful action to end the crimes by over four times,” writes Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch.

Thankfully, Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) has introduced legislation that would recognize the violence against Christians and Yazidis in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Libya as acts of genocide. HR 4017 would also require the Department of Homeland Security to provide expedited visas for these victims of genocide and grant them first priority among refugees. 

Last month, the Knights of Columbus, Armenian National Committee of America and dozens of religious leaders joined the growing number of human rights organizations that support labeling the Islamic State’s war on Christians as genocide. The Republican National Committee has followed their lead with a party resolution unanimously approved at last week’s RNC meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Although this idea would seem uncontroversial, GovTrack gives the bill just a one percent change of passing. Part of the problem is political. As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has pointed out, genocide prevention lacks a political constituency. 

“No U.S. president has ever made genocide prevention a priority, and no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence,” Samantha Power wrote in her 2002 book, “A Problem from Hell.” “It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on.” 

That’s where evangelical Christians can and should step in. Evangelical voters in early primary states could very well decide the Republican presidential nomination, and in turn, the next president. It’s time for evangelical voters to raise the genocide of Middle East Christians and Yazidis as a campaign issue. 

It may be our only chance to force the United States to “actually do something” to end the genocide. 

Steel, a former chairman of the California Republican Party, is the California national committeeman on the Republican National Committee.