While America Waits

The ISIS Genocide: While America Waits, Europe Acts

Gideon Bratt, Clarion Project

09 February 2016

 

 

At a recent news conference, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “There are lawyers considering whether or not [the term ‘genocide’] can be properly applied in this scenario.” But, while the Obama administration “considers” the issue, the European Parliament recently adopted a resolution which, for the first time, called ISIS’ actions in Syria and Iraq a genocide.

The American Position

For many months, the U.S. administration has considered designating ISIS’ persecution of religious minorities a ‘genocide’, but has so far refrained from taking such a step. This is despite numerous calls to do so from senior politicians and experts.

In December, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for the administration to designate “the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of genocide.”

Will U.S. President Barack Obama copy the European move? (Photo © Nick Knupffer / flickr)Later that month, a bipartisan letter was sent from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and 29 colleagues to Secretary of State John Kerry, which expressed concern at reports the administration was planning to exclude Christians from a genocide finding that would only apply to Yazidis. 

The letter noted the USCIRF statement and ended saying “An official genocide determination by the Administration is a rare and weighty occasion…we will continue to insist that any genocide finding must reflect the actual experience of all minorities whose communities are being erased and whose families are being slaughtered because of their faith.”

Historically, the U.S. has been reluctant to apply the term ‘genocide’ because of concerns it will be bound by moral (and legal) obligations that don’t otherwise apply. According to a State Department memo from the Clinton era, Warren Christopher (Bill Clinton’s first secretary of state) repeatedly resisted describing the mass murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda as genocide for fear that “it could commit [the U.S. government] to actually do something.” Is the same fear now holding back the Obama administration from calling ISIS out on their current genocide?

 

Islamic State purportedly executed 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya in a film released April 19.

ISIS Video release transcribed: (Due to the heavy graphical content of the video we have translated into script to avoid ISIS propaganda)

“The worshippers of the cross belonging to the hostile Ethiopian Church”.

“All praise be to Allah, the lord and cherisher of the world”.

“And may peace and blessing be upon the prophet Muhammad to the nation of the cross”.

“We are back again”! “On the sands where the companions of the prophet have stept here before”.

“Telling you that Muslim blood that was shed through the hands of your religion is not cheap”. “In fact, their blood is the purest blood because there’s a  nation behind them that inherit revenge”. “And we swear to Allah, the one who disgrace you by their hand will not have safety, even in your dreams until you embrace Islam”.

“As prophet Muhammed ‘Peace be upon him’ stated, “I was commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no true god, except Allah”, and mohammed is the messenger of Allah and perform salah and peizekar and if they do so they will have protection for their blood and property from me, except when justified by Islam and account than is left to Allah”.

“Or you pay jizya with willing submission leaving yourself subdued”.

“Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood, until there is no more polytheism and obedience becomes a law on its entirety”. [After the delivery of this message the ISIL leaders execute a line of what it seemed to be Ethiopian members of the church]   

 

Meanwhile in Europe

Across the pond, in Europe, things seem to be progressing in the right direction. The European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution last week which said “‘ISIS/Daesh’ is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities.”

The resolution, tabled by Lars Adaktusson, Swedish member of the European Parliament for the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) Group, also said “The violent extremist ideology of the so-called ‘ISIS/Daesh’, its terrorist acts, its continued gross systematic and widespread attacks directed against civilians…constitute a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security” and urged “the members of the UN Security Council to support a referral by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court in order to investigate violations committed in Iraq and Syria by the so-called ‘ISIS/Daesh’ against Christians, Yazidis and religious and ethnic minorities”.

European Parliament building (Photo © Greens Climate / flickr)MEP Lars Adaktusson told Newsweek “It’s really important that the Parliament passed [the resolution], on a political level and a moral level. The significance is the obligations that follow by such a recognition: the collective obligation to intervene, to stop these atrocities… It’s also a historical confirmation that the European Parliament recognized what is going on and that they are suffering from the most despicable crime in the world, namely genocide.”

Nuri Kino, the director and founder of the advocacy group A Demand for Action, also commented to Newsweek, saying “Eighteen months ago we said we will demand action. Today, we can say with pride that we…worked around the clock to make this happen. Now our goal is the U.N. Security Council. Action must be taken.”

Potential Ramifications

Aside from the resolution’s explicit call for a U.N. Security Council resolution and referral to the International Criminal Court, the vote could also put pressure on the U.S. administration to finally designate ISIS’ actions a genocide, prompting more direct action. 

Though some, such as the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rabbi David Saperstein, have argued that President Barack Obama’s administration won’t change its strategy regardless of such a designation, historic precedent shows the gravitas of such a declaration would undoubtedly add urgency to, and have positive ramifications for, international efforts to combat ISIS and prevent the continuing genocide against Christians, Yazidis and others in the Middle East.

This video provides further discussion of the American position on ISIS’ ‘genocide.’

 

Copyright © 2013 Clarion Project, Inc. All rights reserved.


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